


Alice Harkness and the Prisoner of Azkaban

by cazmalfoy



Series: Alice Harkness [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, M/M, Past Jack Harkness/Lucia Moretti, Past Jack Harkness/Remus Lupin - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-19
Updated: 2013-04-14
Packaged: 2017-12-05 20:44:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 50,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/727739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cazmalfoy/pseuds/cazmalfoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alice returns for her third year at Hogwarts, there's an escaped prisoner on the loose and secrets are revealed.<br/>A Torchwood version of the third Harry Potter book. Story 3/7.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dating In The Summer

**Title** : Alice Harkness and the Prisoner of Azkaban  
 **Chapter** : 1/20  
 **Fandom** : Torchwood  
 **Rating** : Mature Teen/Adult  
 **Pairing** : Jack/Ianto  
 **Summary** : Alice returns for her third year at Hogwarts, there's an escaped prisoner on the loose and secrets are revealed.

~

 

**Chapter 1: Dating In The Summer**

History of Magic was the most boring subject they taught at Hogwarts, Alice thought as she yawned widely and stretched her arms out in front of her. It was a Friday night, a week before her birthday and she had spent the evening alone since her dad and Professor Jones had gone on a dinner date (with strict instructions that she was to call Jack on his mobile, or use the floo to call Remus should anything decide to ‘blow up’). Using her quill to scratch the end of her nose, she tilted her wrist to the side and glanced at her watch, seeing that it was ten o’clock which meant that she had been trying to write her essay about witch burning in the fourteenth century for almost three hours. Thankfully, she’d nearly finished and that meant she would only have Professor Jones’ Charms essay to write before she should forget about schoolwork until the approaching September.

With a heavy sigh and another yawn, she dipped her quill in ink and was about to continue writing when she heard the unmistakable sound of a car pulling into the driveway. She wasn’t too alarmed, though; Jack had told her that he’d only be gone a few hours. And, judging by the slam of two car doors, he hadn’t returned alone.

Alice scowled deeply at nothing in particular as she thought about her dad dating her teacher. She knew they had been together when they had been younger, but that knowledge didn’t make their present relationship any less strange for her. She had told Jack that she didn’t have a problem with them being together and she really didn’t – she wanted to see her dad happy, after all – but there was still something strange about coming down to breakfast and finding your charms teacher sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee as he read the newspaper.

The front door opened and she heard the sound of laughter fill the house. “J,” Professor Jones’ voice admonished. “Stop that.”

“You’re such a spoilsport,” Jack’s voice muttered and Alice could practically hear him pouting. “You didn’t used to be a prude.”

“I am not a prude,” Jones argued. Their voices were getting louder, until the living room door opened. “But I-,” He broke off when he saw Alice sitting on the couch, using the coffee table to do her homework. “Oh! Hi, Alice,” he greeted, looking her with an expression that was almost bashful.

Alice smiled tightly and put her quill down. “Hi, Professor,” she replied, popping the muscles in her back in a way she knew she had inherited from Jack (she did find some kind of twisted satisfaction when Jones flinched at the noise). “Dad,” she added, sending a genuine smile in Jack’s direction.

Ianto shook his head. “Please, we’re not in school; call me ‘Ianto’,” he requested, a pleading tone in his voice.

“Sorry, Professor,” she murmured automatically.

Jack rolled his eyes and shrugged his leather jacket off, throwing it over the back of the couch and slumping down in the armchair. “Are you still doing your homework?” he asked, nodding to the coffee table with an incredulous look on his face; it wasn’t like Alice to be doing her homework so late in the evening – especially since school wasn’t due to start for another month.

“Best to get it all out of the way now, so I don’t have to worry about it at the end of summer,” Alice answered with a small shrug of her shoulders.

Ianto sat on the arm of the chair Jack was sitting in and tilted his head to the side, looking at Alice’s homework. “Ah, History of Magic,” he murmured, trying to make conversation as he read the title of the essay. “I always hated that when I was at school,” he added, flashing a hopeful grin at Jack’s daughter. “Is Professor Binns still as boring always?”

Alice stared at him for a moment, before shrugging her shoulders and murmuring, “Yeah, everyone hates it.” She got to her feet. “I’m going to go to bed,” she informed them, but her eyes were trained on Jack who was looking at her with a slightly disapproving frown. She leant down and pressed a kiss against his cheek. “Night, Dad,” she whispered, crossing the room to the door. “Night, Professor,” she added without looking back as she left the room.

The door had barely closed behind her when Jack jumped up and muttered, “I won’t be a second,” to his boyfriend, seconds before he quickly followed his daughter. “Oi!” he hissed up the stairs, halting his daughter’s progress half way up them. “What is your problem?” he demanded when she slowly turned around to face him with a wary expression on her face.

“Nothing!” she exclaimed feebly, leaning a hand on the banister as she studied her father.

Jack glared at her and softly moved up the stairs, not stopping until they were face to face. “You were the one that said you didn’t care about us getting back together,” he reminded her. “Can’t you at least _try_ to be nice to him? He’s trying to be friends with you and you just treated him like he’s garbage! Ianto’s important to me – you both are – and I need you to get along.”

Alice stared back at him, studying the pleading expression on his face, before she sighed and rolled her eyes. “I know. I’m sorry,” she whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder and acting a lot older than her almost-thirteen years. “It’s just going to take some getting used to seeing my teacher outside of school. I’ll try being nicer,” she swore, her eyes shining with honesty.

Jack grinned at her and hugged her tightly, ignoring her half-hearted protests. “Thanks, kid,” he breathed, pressing his face against her dark hair and holding her tightly.

“Daaaad!” she complained after a moment, trying to wriggle out of his tight embrace. “Go, enjoy the rest of your date,” she instructed, pressing a kiss against his cheek and ruffling his pristine hair, making him growl and tickle her. After a minute, she managed to squirm out of his reach and quickly ran up the stairs so he couldn’t reach her. “Night!” she called as she ducked into the safety of her bedroom and closed the door behind her.

Jack rolled his eyes and turned on his heel, slowly heading down the stairs and back into the sitting room where Ianto was still sitting on the arm of the chair. He was holding Alice’s essay in his left hand and his wand in his right hand. Both the essay and wand were glowing a pale shade of gold as he cast some kind of spell on it. “Are you cheating?” he asked, moving around his boyfriend and sliding back into the chair he had been sat in.

Ianto shook his head, not taking his attention off the essay until the gold disappeared from both objects. “I was just checking it for her,” he explained, looking up into Jack’s blue eyes. “There’s nothing that needs to be changed,” he added, placing the parchment back down where he had found it and his wand back in his pocket.

They were silent for a second, before he softly asked, “Is she okay?” He turned to the side and looked down at Jack, watching him intently to see if he was lying. The nod he received in response didn’t seem to satisfy him and he sighed heavily. “She hates me,” he muttered with a glum expression on his face.

Jack frowned and placed his hand into Ianto’s, pulling him to sit on his lap. “She does not hate you,” he argued. “She just…”

“Hates me,” Ianto finished for him.

The other man sighed and wrapped his arms around Ianto, pulling him back against his chest and nuzzling his neck. “She just needs some time to get used to seeing you outside of school,” he whispered, pressing his lips to the skin of Ianto’s neck.

His breath caught in his throat when he felt Jack lightly graze his teeth across his skin and a rush of heat spread from the spot directly to his cock; Jack had always known exactly which buttons he needed to push to get the reaction he wanted from Ianto. “I wish I was as sure as you are,” he murmured, placing his hands over Jack’s and squeezing them gently.

Jack chuckled and pressed a soft kiss against Ianto’s neck again. “Come on,” he whispered, nudging Ianto gently. “Let’s lock up and head to bed. I’ll get the front door?”

“Okay,” Ianto murmured, getting to his feet and helping Jack up. “I’ll check the back door.”

Jack grinned at him and headed out of the living room, locking the front door while Ianto headed into the kitchen. He paused at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for the other man to return.

“I thought you were just locking up,” he stated when Ianto returned with a bottle of wine in his hand. “And don’t you need glasses for that?” Jack added, pointing to the bottle.

Ianto laughed and headed up the stairs, with Jack right behind him. “I never said anything about wanting to drink it from a glass,” he murmured, turning to Jack with a smirk on his face as he reached behind him and opened the bedroom door.

Jack’s jaw fell open in surprise, before the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile. “Oh I was wrong about you, Professor. You are not a prude at all.”

~

Alice sighed and leant against the garden wall, tipping her head back and enjoying the rare bout of sunshine they were currently experiencing. She had tried to finish her History of Magic essay off, but found that the enthusiasm she had felt the previous evening had diminished significantly overnight. She scowled and kicked at a stone near her foot, trying to decide if her lack of motivation had anything to do with the fact that Ianto had been eating breakfast at their dining room table when she’d woken up a few hours earlier, or the amount of sleep she’d had – or lack thereof.

She hadn’t really been able to sleep much the night before. Her mind had kept replaying the conversation she’d had with her dad on the stairs about Professor Jones. She knew she was being more than a little bit unfair to keep being cold towards him – especially considering she had encouraged her dad to get in touch with him again – but there was something strange about having him around and she couldn’t quite shake it no matter how hard she tried to be nice to him. The look of desperation on her father’s face had been plaguing her all night and she had kept seeing it every time she closed her eyes. By the time she eventually gave up pretending to sleep, she had made a resolution to herself that she was going to be as nice as she could to him for Jack’s sake. She didn’t want to see him looking like that again.

There was no way she was going to call him ‘Ianto’, though; that was just weird.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when a rustling caught her attention and she froze in fear. Alice drew in a sharp breath and held it as she waited to see if it happened again. When she heard the second rustling, she ran over to where it appeared to be coming from – the bushes in their neighbour’s garden. Less than a foot away from the fence she paused, trying to work out what she planned on doing when she discovered what was making the noise. In the unlikely event that it was something out of the ordinary, there was nothing she could do as she’d left her wand inside since she wasn’t allowed to use magic outside of school – not that she knew any real spells that would be useful.

With a burst of courage that surprised her, she reached out a shaking hand and pushed the bushes to the side. She let out a yelp of horror when she saw two huge yellow eyes peering out from the bush at her. Attached to those eyes, was the biggest dog she had ever seen in her life; it was almost the size of a bear! The dog itself looked surprised to see Alice so close to the bush. It’s already large eyes widened even further and it yelped quietly as it slowly backed out of the bush, disappearing from Alice’s sight when the branches and leaves fell back into place.

A hand landing on Alice’s shoulder made her jump and she let out a small cry of fear as she quickly spun on her heel to see her dad looking at her with a bemused expression on his face. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Her eyes flickered over to the bush once more, before she looked up at Jack and nodded her head. “I’ve just seen the biggest dog in the _world!_ ” she exclaimed, holding her hand at waist height (even though she was pretty sure the dog wasn’t _that_ big) to indicate its size.

Jack frowned and looked at the house they were standing in front of. “The Matkinsons don’t have a dog,” he informed her.

Alice rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say it was _their_ dog,” she retorted. “Just that there was one and now it’s not there! It was so big!” she repeated, unable to get over the size of the dog she’d just come face to face with. “I…” she trailed off when she looked back at their house and realised that the silver car that had been parked there all night was gone. “Where’s Professor Jones?” she asked.

“He’s just left,” Jack answered. “That’s why I’m here. He drove straight past you and you didn’t even notice. Must have been one big imaginary dog,” he scoffed and shook his head.

The glare Alice threw in his direction would have made him squirm uncomfortably were he not used to it. “I did not imagine it,” she muttered through her teeth, looking back at the bush once more just in case the dog had returned – purely so she could prove that it was real – but there was nothing there now.

Jack shrugged his shoulders. “Do you want to stay out here looking for the ‘dog’?” He even added the air quotes around the world. “Or do you want to come inside and help me make a chocolate cake for when Uncle Remus gets here later?” he asked, holding his hand out to her in invitation.

Alice frowned deeply. “You know he doesn’t like chocolate cake,” she admonished him, sliding her hand into his regardless; Remus might not like it, but she did.

Jack smirked and pulled her down the path towards the house. “That’s why we’re making it,” he informed her with a smirk on his face as he closed the door behind them.

The Slytherin student shook her head and followed her father down the hallway, pulling her hair back into a ponytail as they prepared to bake. With each baking item that was pulled from the cupboard, thoughts of the strange dog were pushed further from her mind until she had forgotten completely.

~

 TBC


	2. The Great Escape

**Chapter 2: The Great Escape**

At eleven o’clock that evening, all the cake had been devoured (both chocolate and the raspberry Alice had convinced Jack to make for his best friend) and Alice had exhausted all her attempts at getting Jack to let her stay up later. He had already pushed her bedtime back by an hour; it was obvious he wouldn’t move it again.

Remus grinned and hugged Alice tightly, pressing a kiss against her cheek as he whispered goodnight. She grinned and returned the sentiment, before bouncing out of the room and heading upstairs to bed, completely bypassing Jack much to his mock-annoyance. 

The former Gryffindor turned to Jack and opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped by Jack who silently raised a hand and tilted his head to the side. Remus rolled his eyes and leant back in the chair, watching as Jack heard what he wanted – presumably the click of Alice’s door closing – before he lowered his hand. “Now that we’re alone,” Jack began, leaning back in his own chair, “I want to know what’s been bugging you all day. You’ve looked like there’s something you want to tell me since you got here and it’s been bugging me! Spit it out!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation. 

Remus scoffed and shook his head. “You really don’t like not knowing stuff, do you?” he muttered more to himself than Jack. With a sigh, he got to his feet and crossed the room to where his jacket and lying over the back of an empty armchair. 

Jack watched as he reached into an inside pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment that seemed to have newsprint on it. “What’s that?” he demanded suspiciously. 

“Come on,” Remus instructed, ignoring his question for favour of grabbing Jack’s hand and pulling him to his feet. “I’m not telling you in here where there’s more chance your eavesdropping daughter will be able to hear us,” he added, pulling Jack out of the living room, through the dining room and out through the patio doors. 

Once they were on the outdoor decking, Jack wrenched his hand free from the other man’s and sat down at the garden table. “What the hell’s so important that you don’t want Alice to hear?” he demanded ass Remus closed the door.

Remus sighed heavily and sat down opposite his friend. Slowly he unfolded the piece of paper he had brought, smoothed down the creases a little, before he handed it to Jack. “I think you need to read this,” he whispered, leaning back and watching as Jack’s blue eyes skimmed the headline of the news article. 

Jack frowned deeply and stared at the paper. It was obvious - even without the title at the top - that he was looking at the front page of the Wizarding newspaper, ‘The Daily Prophet’; not many Muggle newspapers had moving pictures. The headline immediately made his eyes widen and he quickly scanned the writing, getting angrier and angrier with each word he read. When he reached the bottom, the paper fell from his fingers and he looked up at Remus with a furious expression on his face. “He’s escaped?” he hissed through his now-fanged teeth. 

The sandy haired man grimaced when he saw that Jack’s eyes were completely silver; as they had a habit of doing when he was extremely annoyed or aroused (and Remus really doubted it was the second emotion that Jack was feeling right then). “Jack, please calm down,” he requested, keeping his calm and placing a hand on Jack’s arm. “I know you’re mad but losing control like this isn’t going to help anyone.”

Jack’s eyes didn’t change colour as he shrugged Remus’ hand off and reached down to pick up the newspaper again. “He’s a dead man,” he swore, glaring down at the picture on the front page. It wasn’t a particularly flattering picture – what mug shots were? – but it was obvious the man he was looking at was the same person they’d gone to school with; even if the years in Azkaban hadn’t been particularly kind to him.

Remus sighed heavily and reached up, cupping Jack’s face and turning his head away from the newspaper, forcing the vampire to look at him. “Jack Harkness, listen to me,” he instructed firmly. “You are not going to kill him.”

The corners of Jack’s mouth turned up in a smirk that, coupled with his fangs and silver eyes, made him look positively evil. “Oh, I think I am,” he murmured, licking his lips as he thought about what the convict’s blood would taste like.

With a shrug of his shoulders that was more nonchalant than Remus felt, he released Jack and leant back in the chair, folding his arms across his chest. “Fine,” he replied, a note of resignation in his voice. “Kill him. But don’t think that Ianto will be visiting you in Azkaban,” he added, a smirk tugging at his lips as he spoke. “I certainly won’t be swinging by to see you, that’s for sure.”

The vampire’s forehead creased in confusion as Remus’ words slowly sunk into his mind. “You’re using my relationship with Ianto against me?” Jack asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow as his fangs slowly retracted. His eyes didn’t shift back to blue, but they always took a while to revert back to their natural colour if his emotions were particularly strong, so Remus wasn’t too worried about that.

Remus nodded, chuckling to himself as he reached out and took the newspaper from Jack, and re-read the article on the front page. Like with Jack, it had been the headline and picture that had caught his attention first. Although, while Jack thought the years hadn’t been kind to him, Remus actually thought the convict looked pretty good sporting a rugged look. It had taken Remus three attempts at reading the headline – First Escape in History of Azkaban – before its meaning had fully sunk in and he had quickly been filled with dread when it had. 

“How could he have escaped?” Jack asked, pulling Remus out of his thoughts. “Azkaban has the highest security of any prison in the world – both Wizard and Muggle. It shouldn’t be possible.”

Remus shrugged his shoulders. “I really don’t know,” he admitted softly. “No one at the ministry seems to know from what I can tell. The Doctor seems to think…” He hesitated, before sighing and finishing, “that he might come for Alice.”

To his surprise, Jack snorted with laughter and rolled his eyes. “I’d like to see him try,” he muttered. “Even if he is that stupid, he wouldn’t get anything more than he deserved after what he did.” Jack looked at his best friend and his eyes shifted back from silver to blue as his gaze softened. “It’s not Alice I’m worried abou, though,” he whispered, knowing that Remus would understand the meaning behind the words he hadn’t spoken. “It’s you and…” he trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence when he knew it would upset his best friend.

Remus shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he listened to Jack’s words. He knew exactly who the other man was talking about, but he wasn’t prepared to think about that particular day if he could help it – it was a topic they had managed to avoid pretty successfully for almost eleven years, until Alice had gone off to school. “I can’t see how he could know,” Remus eventually said, not looking at Jack. “You’re the only person I told and…” He sighed and shook his head. “He’s safe where he is. There’s no reason to tell him the truth and what it could mean, when nothing is going to happen.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to say something, but one look at Remus’ expression made him stop. “Stop looking at me like that.” He reached out and placed his hand over Remus’ in a silent agreement that he’d drop the subject. “It makes me feel like I’d agree to anything,” he grumbled.

Despite the previously heaviness of the air around them at the mention of such a taboo topic, Remus’ face cracked into a grin and he squeezed Jack’s hand tightly. “I know. I’m trying to teach it to Alice, but she just can’t quite get the hang of it.”

Jack grinned at that and chuckled lightly, before sobering once more. He looked down at the paper, reading it over once more. “So, my uncle knows about this,” he stated.

A quick nod came from Remus. “He was going to tell you himself, what with the threat to Alice, but I convinced him I’d tell you tonight,” he informed his best friend.

The vampire scoffed and rolled his eyes. “So he’s not bothered about the threat to me? It’s nice to know that something’s never change.”

Remus’ eyes narrowed as he glared at his friend. While he was closer to Jack than he had ever been to anyone else, sometimes the petulant child that decided to rear its head whenever the Doctor was mentioned really got on his nerves, and he didn’t have the energy to deal with Jack’s inner brat when it was almost midnight. “Don’t be like that, Jack,” he instructed. “You’re a fully grown wizard and half-vampire; you’re more than capable of defending yourself. Alice isn’t even thirteen yet! There’s no way she could defend herself against him if something happened.”

Their eyes met and the following five minutes were spent trying to outstare each other, until Jack huffed in defeat and folded his arms across his chest. “God, I hate when you’re being sensible,” he muttered, leaning back in the chair with a petulant expression on his face. “When did you start being boring?”

A snort of laughter sounded from Remus as he got to his feet. “One of us had to grow up at some point,” he whispered, pressing an affectionate kiss on Jack’s forehead before ducking into the house and returning almost impossibly quickly with two bottles of beer in his hands for them to enjoy in the still-warm garden.

~

TBC


	3. Happy Birthday, Alice

**Chapter 3: Happy Birthday, Alice**

On the morning of her thirteenth birthday, Alice woke at the crack of dawn and bounded into Jack’s bedroom excitedly. “Dad!” she cried, jumping on the bed and roughly shaking her father awake.

“Leave me alone,” Jack murmured, rolling over onto his stomach and burying his face in his pillow as though that would make Alice go away.

His daughter scowled, before rolling his eyes and shaking him harder. “Come on, Dad,” she instructed. “I want to open my presents!”

“I don’t remember saying you were getting any,” Jack retorted petulantly with his face still buried in the pillow.

Alice sighed and sat on Jack’s back, folding her arms across her chest. “I’m not moving until I get some presents,” she stated.

Jack turned his head and looked at her with tired eyes. “How do you expect me to get you presents when you’re sat on top of me?”

Alice scowled down at him. “You’re a wizard, aren’t you? Use magic.”

Jack rolled his eyes and growled softly. Alice let out a cry of surprise when Jack flipped over, pushing her off him and throwing her onto the bed. 

“Dad!” she cried, trying not to laugh when he tickled her. “Leave me alone!” she shrieked, trying to squirm out of his grip. “Get off me!” she added, pushing him away and jumping up off the bed.

Jack didn’t hesitate before following her out of the room at a run, following her down the stairs. Alice ran into the dining room and paused when she saw a pile of presents sitting on the table. “Wow,” she whispered, awe in her voice. “Look at all the presents.”

Jack grinned and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You didn’t think people wouldn’t make a big deal about your thirteenth birthday, did you?” he asked.

Alice turned and looked up at him with a big smile on her face. “Who are they from?” she whispered.

“Pretty much everyone on the planet, I think,” Jack said, rolling his eyes with a grin on his face. “Is there anyone you don’t know?”

She shrugged her shoulders and entered the room fully, picking one of the presents up and looking at the tag. She grinned when she saw that it was from Draco. “Can I have my birthday breakfast?” she asked, looking up at Jack with wide eyes.

Jack grinned and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Fried tomatoes included?” he asked, moving away from her and heading over to the kitchen door. 

Alice beamed and nodded her head, watching Jack disappear into the kitchen. “And don’t even think about opening your presents without me,” he called back over his shoulder, wiping the smile from her face.

~

By noon all Alice’s presents were open and Jack was wondering when a wrapping paper fairy had vomited over his dining room carpet. 

Alice jumped when the doorbell rang and she looked over at Jack questioningly. The wizard shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t look at me,” he instructed. “It’s probably one of your many fans,” he added, indicating to the wrapping paper on the floor.

She glared at him and got to her feet, jogging out of the dining room and heading for the front door. “Professor Jones?” Alice asked in surprise when she opened the door and saw Ianto standing on the doorstep.

Ianto grinned at her and handed the teenager a bright pink envelope. “Happy birthday,” he greeted.

“Ianto?” Jack asked from the door to the dining room and Alice turned to see him leaning against the doorframe with a surprised look on his face. “What are you doing here?”

Ianto smiled at him. “I came to wish Alice happy birthday,” he replied, nodding to Alice and urging her to open the birthday card.

Alice blinked when she realised that she hadn’t opened the envelope in her hand, before quickly tearing it open and pulling out the card. “Oh,” she murmured in surprise when a piece of parchment fell from the card and fluttered to the floor. “Thanks, Professor,” she said, smiling at Ianto as she bent down and picked the parchment up.

She gasped and her jaw fell open when she saw that the parchment she was holding in her hands was actually a gift certificate for Quality Quidditch Supplies. “Wow,” she whispered, her eyes going wide when she realised how much the certificate was actually for. “Professor, I can’t take this,” she stated.

Ianto shook his head. “Yes, you can,” he argued. “And, please, you really don’t have to call me that when you’re not at school.”

Alice nodded distractedly, looking down the parchment in her hands with awe in her eyes. “Thank you,” she murmured sincerely. “Thank you,” she repeated, looking up at him once more before heading back into the dining room.

Jack watched the dining room door close behind her, before looking back at his boyfriend and raising a questioning eyebrow. “Do I even want to know what that was about?” he asked, moving down the hallway so that he was standing in front of Ianto.

Ianto shrugged his shoulders and kissed Jack in greeting before taking a step back. “I didn’t know what to get her, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong with a voucher for Quality Quidditch Supplies.”

“And how much was this voucher for?” Jack questioned suspiciously, folding his arms across his chest and studying the other man. His eyes widened when Ianto told him how much. “Are you kidding? She’d be able to buy the latest broomstick with that!”

Ianto shrugged his shoulders. “I know, but I really want to get on her good side,” he whispered bashfully.

Jack smiled and brought his arms up, looping them around Ianto’s neck. “So you think buying her an expensive birthday present is going to help?” Ianto nodded his head seriously and Jack laughed. “Who knew you could be such a suck up?” he muttered.

Ianto glared at him. “I’m not a suck up!” he hissed.

The other man laughed and rolled his eyes. “Yes, you are,” Jack stated. “But I love you for it,” he whispered, kissing Ianto softly.

The professor returned the kiss for a moment, before pulling away when they heard Alice shout from the dining room, “Dad, come here!”

Jack rolled his eyes, extracting himself from Ianto’s grip and placing his hand in his lover’s, dragging the other man into the dining room after him. “What?” Jack asked, pushing Ianto down into one of the chairs and sitting next to him. 

Alice pointed at the television in the corner and turned the volume up so that the only human in the room could hear it.

“Members of the public are urged to not approach Black, as he is thought to be armed and extremely dangerous,” the news reporter was saying and Jack felt his stomach lurch; one look at Ianto confirmed that he felt the same way. “Black has been imprisoned for over ten years for his part in the murder of thirteen people.”

Alice turned the television down once more and turned back to Jack, folding her arms across her chest. “Is there something you haven’t told me?” she demanded.

Jack swallowed and stared at his daughter. “What are you talking about?” he asked, trying to keep his voice even and his heart rate under control; sometimes having a daughter for a vampire was rather inconvenient.

“Minister Saxon was in the background of that report,” Alice retorted, nodding over to the television, which was now reporting on the latest football results. “That means that whoever they were reporting on must have been a wizard. Plus, I know that Uncle Remus was showing you something in the Daily Prophet the other day. I saw you outside,” she added with a shrug of her shoulders when Jack looked at her suspiciously.

At her words, Ianto chuckled and Jack glared at him. “Don’t look at me like that,” the Welshman instructed. “You can’t tell anyone off for eavesdropping. Don’t you remember how we found out about Professor Flitwick and Madame Zarianne?” he added. His words and the mischievous twinkle in his eye made Alice frown for a second; even though she had known that he and Jack had been friends, the now-Charms professor would be the last person she expected to play pranks like Jack had at school. 

Jack narrowed his eyes at Ianto, but didn’t tell him off for revealing things about when they’d been at school, before he looked back at Alice and sighed, running a hand over his face. “You’re right, Sirius Black is a wizard,” he confirmed. “He escaped from Azkaban a week and half ago.”

He had hoped to leave it at that, but as ever his inquisitive daughter knew immediately that there was something he wasn’t telling her. She looked between both Jack and Ianto, before frowning deeply. “I know there’s something you’re not telling me,” she stated, folding her arms across her chest and leaning back in her seat. “You both look equally nervous and I have a feeling it’s nothing to do with that fact that Black killed thirteen people.” 

Both wizards grimaced and Jack looked at Ianto with large pleading eyes, trying to silently ask what he should do. “I think you should tell her, J,” the charms teacher eventually whispered, placing his hand on Jack’s arm. “She’s going to find out eventually. It’s best she hears it from you, rather than someone at school.”

Jack looked at him for a long moment – clearly that hadn’t been what he’d wanted to hear - before he sighed again and leant forward, resting his head against the table. “Before you get mad at me, I was going to tell you this when you were older,” he said after a moment, lifting his head and looking at his daughter.

Alice’s eyes narrowed suspiciously and she slowly nodded her head. “I’m listening,” she whispered.

“He… Sirius Black… He’s not just a wizard like me or Ianto. He’s an evil man; a dark wizard,” Jack began to explain. “He worked for Voldemort.” Ianto reached over and squeezed Jack’s arm reassuringly, which earned him a thankful smile from the vampire. “He… He killed your mother.”

Silence followed Jack’s statement and, not for the first time in his life, he wished he could take back what had just said. Alice was better off not knowing the truth; he just knew it. “He…” Alice began, before shaking her head. “I thought Voldemort killed Mum,” she stated with a frown.

Jack sighed and ran his fingers over the grain in the wood. “He did. I…” 

Ianto placed his hand over Jack’s, knowing that the other man would likely flounder around for words until he messed up the entire explanation. “Alice,” he whispered, taking over. “Lucia was in hiding from the Dark Lord and she had taken you with her. The Doctor hid you using a very powerful spell that would only allow one person to know where you were. Lucia and Sirius Black had been friends since school; he was the only person who knew where you and your mother were; even J wasn’t allowed to know. When she… No one suspected that Black was a traitor until that Halloween when it was too late and Voldemort had already attacked.”

Jack threw Ianto a thankful smile, before turning to Alice who looked stunned. “Like I said,” he said softly. “I was going to tell you when you were older. I just… I never thought it would be an issue while you were still in school.”

Alice nodded her head, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth as thought over what he had just told her. “I need to call Rachael,” she stated, getting up from the table so suddenly that it made both Jack and Ianto jump in surprise. 

Jack frowned and looked at her in confusion. “Alice, what…?” he began.

The teenager – God, Jack felt old thinking of her as one of those – turned back to face him and rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to spend the day in the park when there’s a mass murderer on the loose, Dad,” she stated. “Even I’m not that stupid,” she stated, turning back on her heel and heading out of the dining room to use the phone near the front door.

Ianto laughed when the dining room door closed and leant forward, turning the volume up on the television once more. In silence, he and Jack watched the news report Black’s escape once more, before Jack rolled his eyes and muted the set once more. “I should have killed him when I had the chance,” he murmured, never taking his eyes off the television set which was showing Black’s face.

Ianto snorted and shook his head. “You were seventeen,” he reminded the other man. “Would you have liked being Azkaban’s youngest prisoner?” Jack turned his head to the side and raised a questioning eyebrow. “Johnny was 19 when he was arrested,” Ianto stated, knowing that the other wizard was thinking about Ianto’s younger brother. “You would have been younger.”

“True,” Jack murmured, looking back at the screen. “I can’t believe they’re telling the Muggle world that he’s escaped.”

“Why?” Ianto questioned. “Black is dangerous, even without his wand. I think people should be aware that they’re not as safe as they were a few months ago.”

Ianto turned the television set off, finally getting sick of hearing the reporter repeat the same story. “Was Alice right about Remus telling you about Black?” he asked, turning in his seat and looking over at the other man.

Jack sighed and leant back in his chair, looking over at Ianto. “Yeah,” he whispered. “He showed me the Daily Prophet when the escape was front page news.”

“It’s still front page news, J,” Ianto pointed out with a shake of his head and a roll of his eyes. “I’m not surprised that Remus told you, though. He always did look out for you, even when you refused to look out for yourself.”

A blush coloured Jack’s cheeks and he shrugged his shoulders. “He said something about my uncle wanting to tell me, but Remus volunteered instead. I suppose it was a good thing he did, really,” he added, looking away from Ianto as he tried to keep an innocent expression plastered on his face. 

Ianto raised a suspicious eyebrow. “J, what did you do?” he asked warily.

“I flipped,” Jack answered honestly, he knew that there was no point in lying to Ianto about how he had reacted; the other man had always been able to tell when people were lying to him. “I was this close to hunting the bastard down and ripping his throat out.” Jack’s eyes flashed silver at the very thought, but he managed to reign himself in pretty quickly.

Ianto sighed and run his hand through his hair. “You’re right, it is a good job the Doctor didn’t come,” he conceded. “I take it you haven’t told Alice that Lucia and Sirius were…”

“No,” he interrupted with a shake of his head. “I don’t think she’s ready to hear something like that, do you?” 

Ianto shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he murmured. “I know she’s only thirteen, but she’s a lot more mature than most of the students her age. I think she’d be able to handle it.”

“No,” Jack stated, a firm edge to his voice. “I’m not going to tell her. Imagine how you’d feel, knowing that Black is responsible for your mother’s death, and then finding out the truth about how close they actually were.” He shook his head. “That little secret stays between us,” he whispered, meeting Ianto’s gaze with his own.

TBC


	4. Back To Hogwarts

**Chapter 4: Back to Hogwarts**

On the way from their house to King’s Cross station on the morning of September the first, Alice reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment. “Dad?” she said, glad that she didn’t have to shout to be heard over the sound of the tube; Jack’s enhanced hearing could hear her as perfectly as she could hear him.

Jack tore his gaze away from the poster he was reading and looked down at her with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah?” he asked warily, the tone of her voice made him doubt whether he wanted to know what she was going to ask.

Alice swallowed nervously and handed him the parchment. “This came with my school letter,” she whispered.

Jack frowned and glanced down at the paper, seeing that it was a permission slip to allow Alice to go to the village of Hogsmeade – a short walk from the school – with the rest of her friends; he’d almost forgotten about that privilege of being a teenager. “Why are you so nervous?” he asked, reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a pen.

Alice’s eyes widened when she saw Jack scribble his name on the bottom of the slip. “You’re letting me go?” she blurted out, unable to stop herself.

Jack laughed and rolled his eyes, handing her the parchment back and placing the pen in his pocket. “Why wouldn’t I? Your great-uncle let me go when I was your age; I can’t make you stay at school when Owen and Draco will be in Hogsmeade.”

“But – But -,” Alice stammered. “What about Black?” she hissed, looking around her as though she expected the convicted murderer to jump out from behind one the seats.

“Ah,” Jack murmured. “Well, I’m trusting you to be careful,” he responded with a small shrug of his shoulders.

Alice’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “You’re not planning on apparating to Hogsmeade every other weekend, are you?” she accused. Jack laughed and shook his head. “Do teachers go to the village?” she added, thinking that she’d discovered another way for Jack to spy on his daughter.

This time his laugh was louder and earned him a glare from an elderly woman nearby, who tutted and shook her head, mumbling something about ‘noisy teenagers’ – which made Jack laugh even louder. When he had calmed himself, the wizard looked back at his daughter and placed a hand over his heart. “I swear to you, I have not told – nor will I let – Ianto, or the Doctor spy on you,” he promised, his blue eyes still twinkling with mirth.

Alice’s own eyes remained narrow for a moment, before she nodded her head and placed the permission slip into her bag. “Fine,” she muttered, getting to her feet as the train slowed to a stop in the station. “I believe you.”

“Good,” Jack murmured, placing his hand in hers – despite her usual protests – and led her up the escalator, through the ticket barriers, up the stairs and across to the main station and Platform 9 ¾.

When they arrived on the platform, Alice immediately ran off to give her trunks to the porter, while Jack waited for her just underneath the clock.

He jumped in surprise when he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around, expecting to see Molly or Arthur stood by him. His eyes widened when he saw his best friend – wearing wizard’s robes for the first time in as long as Jack could remember – grinning widely.

“I like this,” Remus murmured in amusement. “I’m getting good at making you jump. I think you’re slacking in your old age.”

Jack rolled his eyes and hugged his friend. “Keep laughing,” he retorted. “You’re a week older than I am; you’ll be the one turning forty first – not me,” he reminded Remus.

Remus glared at him and hit him on the back. “Don’t comment about being forty,” he instructed. “I’m not going to get to that age; I’m going to find a way to freeze myself at thirty-nine.”

Jack laughed and shook his head, stepping back and taking in Remus’ attire. “What’s with the robes?” he asked. “And, since when did you decide to see Alice off to school?”

“Are you seriously commenting on people’s choice of clothing?” Remus asked with a raised eyebrow. 

Jack rolled his eyes and waved his hand dismissively. “I’m not dressed like that now, am I?” he snapped.

“Only because I know you’ve come on the tube,” Remus reminded him and Jack shrugged his shoulders. “And I haven’t come to see Alice off; I’m going with her.” Jack looked at him in confusion and the other man laughed. “The Doctor hired me as this year’s Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.”

Jack’s eyes widened and a huge grin split across his face as he hugged Remus tightly. “That’s brilliant,” he enthused, finally releasing Remus when the other man began to complain about not being able to breathe.

Remus laughed and squeezed Jack’s hand affectionately before he stepped back. “You’re acting like I’ve never had a job before,” he murmured, trying to ignore the light blush that was colouring his cheeks.

Jack scowled and barely resisted the urge to stick his tongue out. “You know what I mean,” he muttered. “Every job you’ve ever had has been in the Muggle world,” he reminded his friend. “You’ve wanted to be a teacher at Hogwarts for as long as I can remember. But,” Jack frowned as a sudden thought occurred to him, “what about…?” he trailed off, not wanting to finish his sentence when there were so many people around to eavesdrop.

Remus smiled affectionately at the concern his friend was showing and placed a soothing hand on his arm. “Your uncle’s already thought of that,” he assured him. “Hart’s going to brew the potion for me, so don’t worry.”

Jack’s eyes darkened with suspicion. “I would not trust Hart to make me anything,” he muttered childishly.

Remus rolled his eyes. “He’s the potions teacher for a reason, Jack,” he murmured. “I would prefer to not have to take the potion at all, but since I have to when I’m around the students I would rather Hart brew it for me. He was always the best potions student in the year, you know that.” 

The scowl didn’t shift from Jack’s face and he opened his mouth to argue further, but was cut off by Alice’s return.

Immediately dropping his argument with Jack, Remus turned to his niece and grinned widely at her. “Hey, kid,” he greeted, pulling her into a hug. Jack scowled and folded his arms petulantly across his chest when she didn’t tell Remus off like she did with Jack. “You’re getting taller.”

Alice rolled her eyes and hit Remus lightly on the arm. “You and Dad have been saying that for ages and I don’t feel it.”

“Just because you don’t feel like you’re growing, doesn’t mean you’re not,” Remus pointed out. “I’m going to have to go,” he said, turning back to his best friend and hugging Jack tightly. “You sure you’ll be able to keep yourself out of trouble without me?” he asked, smirking at the other man.

Jack rolled his eyes. “Yes, Dad,” he responded, smirking at Remus. “I’ll see you later,” he stated, watching as Remus hugged Alice and said goodbye, before heading off down the platform.

Alice frowned deeply and looked up at Jack with a confusion expression. “Where’s he going?” she asked. Jack grinned and nodded to where they could see Remus climbing onto the train. Alice’s eyes widened and turned back to her father. “He’s going to Hogwarts?”

Jack nodded. “He’s your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher,” he said, lowering his voice so no one else could hear – he wasn’t sure how much students were supposed to know before they got to the school.

“Really?” Alice breathed, a smile spreading across her face, before she scowled as she thought of something.

“I know what you’re thinking and, no,” Jack stated. “I haven’t asked Remus to spy on you either.” Alice’s eyes narrowed in suspicion as she looked up at her father. “Give me a little bit of credit; I’ve only just found out he’s going to be a teacher. I haven’t asked my boyfriend or uncle to spy on you; I’m not going to ask Remus.” Alice didn’t look like she believed him and Jack rolled his eyes. “Just stop doubting me and go find your friends,” he instructed.

Alice raised an eyebrow. “Are you trying to get rid of me? Normally you don’t want me to go.”

“I’m not trying to get rid of you,” Jack retorted. “But it’s almost eleven and I don’t think the train is going to wait around for you. Unless, of course, you don’t want to go back to Hogwarts this year?” he offered, the corners of his mouth turning up in a smirk.

Alice rolled her eyes and hugged Jack tightly. “I’ll see you at Christmas, Dad,” she whispered, looking up into his blue eyes.

Jack grinned and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Miss you, kid,” he murmured, hugging her back just as tightly before releasing her.

She smiled at him and jogged away, heading for the train. “Alice?” she heard Jack’s voice call her and turned around with a raised eyebrow. “Be careful,” he whispered.

Alice nodded her head and tapped two fingers to her temple. “I will,” she replied, her voice just as soft as his, before she climbed onto the train. She paused when she heard a familiar voice shout, “Oi, Harkness!” 

Turning around, she saw Draco and Owen heading towards her. “Where have you two been?” she asked when they got close enough for them to hear her without her having to shout. 

“Looking for you,” Draco stated with a roll of his eyes. “Are you going to get on the train, or not?” he snapped, pushing her back when she didn’t move.

Alice glared at him. “I will push you off,” she threatened over her shoulder as they headed through the train. 

“We put our stuff in one of the compartments earlier,” Owen told her, pointing to one of the compartments a short way down the train. “They were filling up pretty fast. I don’t believe it!” he exclaimed, coming to a stop abruptly in front of a carriage.

Alice turned on her heel and stared at him in disbelief. “What’s wrong with you now?” she demanded, placing her hands on her hips.

Owen nodded into the carriage he was in front of. “This is where we put our stuff,” he stated. “And there’s someone in there now!”

Alice followed Owen’s gaze and laughed when she saw who was sitting inside the carriage. “It’s okay,” she murmured, moving towards the door. “That’s my dad’s best friend, Remus Lupin,” she stated, pulling the sliding door open and entering the carriage.

Remus looked up when he heard the door open and grinned at the young witch as her and her friends entered the carriage. “Hey, kid,” he greeted, moving his briefcase off of the seat next to him so Draco could sit down.

“I didn’t know teachers had to get the train,” Alice stated by way of greeting, leaning back in her seat. 

Remus smiled at her. “Most of the teachers live nearer the school than I do, or apparate there,” he informed her. “Sometimes apparating can be a little tiring,” he added, throwing her a meaningful look. “So I decided to take the train.”

His gaze turned to Draco and Owen who were looking decisively uncomfortable. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?” he asked, looking back at Alice and raising an eyebrow. “I know your dad taught you better than that.”

Alice rolled her eyes and glared at him. “You’re not going to be doing that all year, are you?” she muttered. “It’s already bad enough that Dad’s got an uncle and a boyfriend inside the school; now he’s got you to keep an eye on me as well.”

Remus laughed and shrugged his shoulders, not bothering to assure her that he wasn’t going to be keeping an eye on her. If the young witch thought any of them would not be keeping a close eye on her, she wasn’t as smart as everyone gave her credit for.

The witch continued glaring at him for another moment, before she sighed and looked over at Owen and Draco. “Guys, this is our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lupin. Uncle Remus, this is Draco and Owen.”

Remus smiled at the Slytherin students, before looking back over at Alice. “You know you can’t call me that when we’re at school,” he reminded her.

Alice rolled her eyes. “I know,” she retorted as the door opened and the middle-aged witch who pushed the sweet trolley distracted them with copious amounts of confectionary.

TBC


	5. Dementors On A Train

**Chapter 5: Dementors On A Train**

For the rest of the train journey, the three friends spent their time laughing and bickering with each other as they recounted their summers. Somehow Remus even managed to fall asleep. Several hours in, the train lurched to a stop so suddenly that Alice and Draco fell off their seats and landed on the floor with a painful crash.

“What the hell was that?” Alice demanded, allowing Draco to pull her to her feet. A glance at Remus told them that even the sudden stop hadn’t woken the wizard.

Owen shrugged his shoulders and got to his feet. “No idea,” he murmured, looking out of the window at the weather, which had been getting progressively worse for a past hour or so, and it was currently pitch black outside and it was pouring it down with rain. “There’s nothing out there,” he added.

Alice let out in voluntarily yelp of surprise when the lights went out and they were plunged into complete darkness. “Okay,” she murmured, her eyes quickly adjusting to the sudden intrusion of darkness. “That’s not normal.”

The door opened, making both Owen and Draco start, but Alice merely smiled and shuffled over on the seat. “It’s only Gwen,” she told them. “You can sit here,” she informed the Gryffindor student, patting the seat next to her, only realising afterwards how stupid an action it was when no-one could see. 

After a moment of confusion and chaos, Gwen managed to situate herself on the seat - only accidentally sitting in Draco’s lap once. “What’s going on?” she asked once she was sat down.

Alice shrugged her shoulders – only realising how futile a gesture it was after she’d done it. “We don’t know,” she answered. “We’re as much in the dark as you.”

Draco snorted and Alice could see him shaking his head in the darkness. “That’s a pathetic excuse at a pun, Harkness,” he muttered. Alice frowned and kicked his shin hard. “Ow!” the blond exclaimed, clutching his leg and glaring at her even though she couldn’t see him – or so he thought.

“You’re such a baby,” Alice retorted. “I didn’t kick you that hard,” she lied, not wanting to admit that she had kicked him harder than she had originally intended.

Across the carriage, Draco let out a noise of disbelief. “Yes, you did,” he retorted through clenched teeth. “You could have broken my bloody leg. You-,”

“Quiet!” Remus hissed from his seat, making the students jump.

Alice grinned when she saw that Remus was on his feet, seconds before flames seemed to appear in his hand. “Wow,” Alice murmured in appreciation. “That’s ace! Can you show me how to do that?” she asked, her eyes travelling up to the wizard’s face.

Remus chuckled and shook his head. “Ask Professor Jones,” he advised, placing it down the small table under the window; Alice felt her eyes widen in surprise when the flames didn’t burn anything. “Stay where you are,” he instructed, taking a step towards the door.

Alice scowled and folded her arms across her chest. “I mean it, Alice,” Remus instructed. “I want all…” he trailed off as he realised there was an extra person in the carriage. “Four of you to stay here,” he finished. “I’m going to see if I can find out what’s going on.”

Reluctantly, Alice nodded her head and watched as Remus took a step towards the door. Before he was even halfway across the small space, the door opened on its own and everyone turned to look at the new comer. 

Immediately, Alice felt herself go cold when she saw that there was a tall hooded figure in the doorway, illuminated by the flames from Remus’ fire and so tall the top of its head brushed the ceiling. Alice ducked her head, trying to see the thing’s face, but it was completely hidden by a heavy black hood – well, Alice presumed it was black; it was a little hard to tell in the semi darkness.

Movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention and she looked down, immediately wishing that she hadn’t. Protruding from underneath the cloak was a hand, only it didn’t look like any other hands Alice had ever seen; it was grey, looked slimy and scabbed – as though it had died a long time ago.

Almost as though the creature – at the sight of the ‘hand’, Alice had decided that it wasn’t human – sensed her looking, the hand quickly disappeared into the folds of the robes once more.

Then the creature let out one of the most horrifying sounds Alice had ever heard. It sounded like a breath, a slow, rattling breath that made it sounds as though its lungs were searching the air something more than oxygen.

The cold feeling Alice had already been feeling intensified – almost like she had been plunged into a vat of freezing cold water – and she felt her breath catch in her chest; it felt like there was some kind on invisible weight on her chest. The sound of blood rushing in her ears drowned out the other sounds in the carriage and when she tried to move, she discovered that her limbs were made out of lead.

Alice could feel herself growing weaker and weaker; then someone started to scream and everything went black

~

Alice’s eyes sprung open when she felt something cold and wet hit her face. She groaned when she saw that Draco, Owen and Gwen were leaning over her, each wearing identical looks of fear on their faces.

“See, I told you that would work,” Draco stated, the smugness in his voice not quite covering up the terror that was written all over his face.

Owen rolled his eyes and took a step back so Alice could sit up. “You just wanted to throw water on her. Are you okay?” he asked, sitting down on the seat.

Alice shrugged her shoulders and rubbed the back of her head, wincing at the pain that shot through her skull. “What did I hit my head on?” she murmured, looking around at them.

“When you fainted you caught your head on the corner of that,” Draco informed her, pointing to the small table beneath the window.

Alice groaned, knowing that she was going to have a lump for a few days, before she remembered why she had fainted. “What happened? Who screamed?” she asked.

The other occupants of the carriage exchanged confused glances, before Gwen whispered, “No one screamed, Alice.”

There was a large snap which made them all jump and they turned to see Remus breaking a large bar of chocolate into five pieces. “Here,” he said, handing them each a piece and keeping one for himself. It didn’t escape Alice’s attention that her piece was bigger than everyone else’s. “Eat this; it’ll make you feel better.”

Alice scowled and bit into a corner of the chocolate. “What was that thing?” she asked, looking up at Remus in confusion; only just realising that the lights had come back on and they were moving once more. 

Remus sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. “A Dementor,” he answered. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, before he added, “They’re the guards from Azkaban.”

Alice’s eyes widened as she stared up at Remus with her mouth open. “Eat that,” Remus instructed, shifting uncomfortably under his gaze. “I need to talk to the driver.” Before any of them could ask him further questions, he headed out of the carriage and closed the door behind him. 

As soon as the door was closed, Gwen turned to Alice and whispered, “Are you sure you’re okay?” 

Alice nodded her head, trying to not wince at the pain she felt. “I’m getting there,” she replied honestly. “But, I still don’t get it; what happened? I remember that thing – the Dementor – coming in here and then nothing until I woke up.”

Draco and Owen exchanged glances, before Owen volunteered Draco to answer her question. The blond sighed, throwing a glare at Owen, and turned to look at Alice. “You looked like you were having a fit, or something,” he told her. “That thing came in here and you just… went rigid and started shaking; then you fell on the floor and hit your head.”

Alice felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment and she looked around at the others. “Did any of the rest of you react like that?” she asked. They all shook their heads and she sighed. “Great,” she murmured. “So it’s just me that’s the freak.”

Draco rolled eyes. “I could have told you that even without the Dementor,” he muttered, quickly moving his legs so she couldn’t kick him – only to receive a punch on the knee for his efforts. 

“What made it go away?” Alice asked, her blue eyes flickering back to the door where she imagined that she could still see the Dementor. 

“Professor Lupin,” Owen answered. “He stepped over you – literally, stepped over you – and told the Dementor that ‘none of us were hiding Sirius Black’.”

Draco nodded his head in agreement and added, “Then this silvery stuff came out of his wand and it just kind of… glided away.”

Alice bit her lip in thought. “And none of you reacted like I did?” she asked, receiving shakes of their heads in answer once more. “That’s weird.”

“I wonder why they thought Black was on here,” Gwen mused aloud and Alice shifted uncomfortably in her seat; she had a pretty good idea why they had checked the train.

Draco and Owen caught her movement, but she shook her head a little; indicating to them that she didn’t want to say anything in front of Gwen – who, despite everything she had been through the previous year, was still younger than them and scared easier. If Owen and Draco hadn’t worked out that she wanted to keep quiet for the moment, she was saved from any uncomfortable moments when the door opened and Remus returned. 

“You haven’t eaten all the chocolate,” were his first words to Alice as he sat back down in his seat. The Slytherin flashed him an apologetic smile and continued eating the confectionary in her hand. “We’ll be at Hogwarts in about twenty minutes,” he informed them, picking his book up and turning to the page he had book marked; Alice was amazed at how good he was at acting like nothing had happened.

~

When they eventually arrived at Hogsmeade, the entire school seemed to be buzzing with the knowledge of the Dementors appearing on the train; thankfully, no one seemed to be aware of what had happened to Alice.

Talk about the Dementors continued all the way from the train station to the school, and by the time Alice sat down at the Slytherin table she was ready to punch the next person who mentioned the prison guards. 

Thankfully, the Doctor stood up and the school gradually fell silent. “Thank you,” he said, offering the students a tighter smile than any of them were used to seeing on him. Actually, he looked more serious than Alice could remember seeing; and she was used to the tension that passed between him and Jack. 

“Welcome to another year at Hogwarts,” he continued. “There are a few things I am required to tell you and, as one of them is incredibly serious, I thought it best I tell you now rather than when your stomachs are filled with delicious food.” He paused for a beat, before continuing, “After their search of the train on the way here, I’m sure you’re all aware of the Dementors of Azkaban’s presence at the school.”

Owen nudged Alice who was sitting beside him and leant over, whispering in her ear, “He doesn’t look happy about them being here.”

Alice nodded her head distractedly as she listened to what her great-uncle was saying. “They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds,” the Doctor continued, “for the foreseeable future. And, while they are here, nobody is to leave the school without permission. Any student caught sneaking out will be given a punishment far worse than expulsion. It isn’t in a Dementor’s nature to understand tricks or disguises; not even perception filters,” he added pointedly, and even though he didn’t look directly at her, Alice knew she was referring to the key.

The Doctor paused for a moment, letting the news sink into the students’ minds, before a smile spread across his face and the usual twinkle appeared back in his eye. “Right,” he said, clapping his hands together, his usual energy back in his voice and smile. “Onto a happier topic, Professor Lupin,” he indicated to Remus, “has kindly consented to join our staff as our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.”

The applause this received was scattered and Alice knew that many of the students were trying to decide how long this new teacher would last and whether he would be as bad as Lake; only Alice applauded as loud as she could, earning a few weird glances from the others around her, but she didn’t care.

When the applause died down, Draco kicked Alice lightly under the table and leant forward, whispering, “Look at Hart.”

Alice turned her head and frowned when she saw that Hart was glaring at Remus with a look that was full of pure hatred. “What’s his problem?” she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

Owen shrugged his shoulders and Draco leant even closer, not wanting anyone else to hear what he was saying. “He’s wanted to be the Defence teacher for years, but the Doctor always tells him that he can’t afford to lose him as a potions teacher.”

“I wonder if he applied this year,” Owen mused. “It would explain why he looks so mad. Either that, or he just really hates Professor Lupin.”

“And lastly, Professor Kettleburn has decided to take early retirement,” the Doctor continued, interrupting whatever reply Alice might have been about give. “And, as such, I am pleased to appoint Professor Noble,” he indicated to Donna, “as our new Care of Magical Creatures teacher.”

Donna grinned at him and smoothed down her hair in embarrassment as the students applauded for her.

Draco rolled his eyes. “That means you have four – five if you include the Doctor – teachers in this school who are connected to your dad.”

Alice laughed and shook her head. “Trust me,” she assured him. “Favouritism won’t be an issue; if anything they’ll be harder on me to show that they’re not playing favourites.”

Owen threw a pointed look at Draco and the blond snorted with laughter, earning him a fierce glare from Alice. “You’re lucky I can’t get away with hitting you in front of everyone, Malfoy,” she hissed through her teeth.

Draco grinned deeply and straightened in his seat. He grimaced when he felt Alice’s foot hit him hard in the shin. “Ow!” he growled, glaring across the table at her.

She smiled sweetly at him and reached out for her fork when the food magically appeared on the table. “I don’t know why you’re glaring at me; I never touched you,” she said, unable to keep the smirk off of her face.

A couple of hours later, they were leaving the Great Hall when Alice spotted the Doctor a short way down the corridor – how he had got from inside the hall to the corridor in such a short space of time, she really had no idea; he had still being sat at the teacher’s table talking to Ianto when she had last looked.

His face lit up when he saw her through the crowd of students and Alice realised that he had been waiting for her all along. “I’ll catch you guys up,” she murmured to Owen and Draco, before heading away from her friends and moving down the corridor to the Doctor. “He told you, didn’t he?” she demanded when she was standing in front of him, not bothering with pleasantries.

The headmaster rolled his eyes. “You’re my family, Alice,” he reminded her softly. “Not to mention a student in my school; Remus was only doing his job by telling me.”

As a thought occurred to her, she could feel her face paling as she looked up at the Doctor. “You… You haven’t told my dad, have you?” she whispered, dread filling her voice; Jack was protective at the best of times – he didn’t need any encouragement to pull her out of the school.

The Doctor shook his head. “I haven’t,” he assured her. “Listen, Alice,” he added, placing his hand on her arm and pulling her away from the crowd who were looking at them curiously. “I meant what I said. Trying to fool the Dementors is dangerous; I don’t want you going anywhere near them. Especially when we don’t know why you reacted like you did.”

Alice sighed heavily and nodded her head. “I promise I won’t go near them,” she swore. “Trust me, I don’t want to repeat what happened on the train, either.” The Doctor smiled thankfully. “Can I go to bed now?” she asked after a moment.

The headmaster chuckled. “Of course you can,” he replied, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder gently. “Night, Alice,” he added.

She grinned and stood on her tiptoes, pressing a kiss to his cheek and whispering, “Good night,” before bouncing away down the corridor towards the Slytherin common room.

TBC


	6. River Song

**Chapter 6: River Song**

The next morning, Alice and Owen entered the Great Hall, expecting to see Draco sat at the table. Alice scowled when she saw that he wasn’t anywhere in sight. “He wasn’t still in bed, was he?” Alice asked, looking over at Owen.

The other Slytherin shook his head and made his way down the centre of the hall, sliding onto one of the benches. “He’s probably out flying. You know what he’s been like ever since he got on the Quidditch team,” he muttered, reaching out for a piece of toast. “He’s obsessed with training.”

Alice rolled her eyes and sat down. “I doubt it,” she retorted. “There’s going to be enough of that when Quidditch season starts. I bet he’s just-,” She broke off when Draco sat down at the table next to her. “Where have you been?” she demanded, dipping her spoon into the porridge in front of her.

“I went to the bathroom and when I came back, you’d gone,” the blond explained, nodding to Owen as he reached for a goblet of orange juice.

The other’s looked at the table with bashful expressions on their faces. “Sorry,” Alice whispered bashfully, running her finger over the grain on the table in front of her. “We just presumed you were already down here.”

Draco laughed and rolled his eyes, spooning sugar into his own bowl of porridge. Alice turned her nose up as she counted the number of spoonful’s he added; losing count after the first three. “Do you really have to put that much sugar in?” she muttered, grimacing as Draco stirred the sugar into the porridge.

The blond lifted his head and stared at her with a look of confusion on his face. “Yes,” he stated, the tone of his voice suggesting that she was stupid to even question him. “Have you ever tasted porridge without sugar?” he demanded. Alice rolled her eyes and pointed to her own bowl, which was completely devoid of sugar. “That’s just because you’re disgusting,” Draco retorted, wincing when she elbowed him in the ribs. “Why do you insist on hitting me all the time?” he demanded, reaching out and hitting her on the back of the head.

Alice punched him in the arm in retaliation, just as Hart appeared to distribute their timetables. “Stop fighting at the table, Harkness,” he ordered, “or you’ll find yourself in detention.”

The female Slytherin huffed in annoyance and snatched the timetable from him as he passed it to her. “Yes, Sir,” she muttered through clenched teeth, glaring at his back as he headed down the corridor. “This is exactly why you can’t comment on the Doctor giving me special treatment,” she stated, glaring at Draco when she noticed that he was trying to not laugh. “Hart’s your godfather and he treats you better than the Doctor treats me.”

Owen looked down at the timetable in his hands as his friends bickered, before swearing loudly, effectively managing to get their attention. “What’s your problem?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked down at her own timetable, trying to see what had caused the outburst. 

“We’ve got potions first thing,” Owen stated, scowling as he jabbed his spoon into his bowl. “Wonderful, just what you want on the first day back at school,” he added with a sarcastic drawl, lowering his voice when Hart stalked past them, glaring at them accusingly.

Alice glanced at her own timetable and sighed heavily when she realised that he was right. “I can’t wait until we can drop classes,” she stated.

Draco rolled his eyes. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you two. It’s not that bad,” he added, glancing down at his own schedule.

“Yeah, for Hart’s godson,” Alice muttered, scanning the list of classes. “Well, I got the lessons I asked for,” she said, stuffing the timetable into her bag and turning her attention back to her breakfast.

Draco finally looked up from his own timetable and regarded her across the table. “Which ones?” he asked, shovelling a spoon full of porridge into his mouth. 

“Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures and Divination,” Alice answered. 

Owen raised an eyebrow. “You’re taking three of the most boring lessons?” he asked incredulously.

Alice nodded her head. “Well, the way I see it, Divination is just looking into a crystal ball and spouting off a bunch of random stuff, Care of Magical Creatures might actually be interesting and Muggle Studies will probably be the easiest class ever.”

Draco rolled his eyes. “You’re only taking it because it’s the easiest?” he asked with a shake of his head. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Alice laughed. “Have you ever been to the Muggle world?” she asked. Draco shook his head and she rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t be able to pass it,” she informed him.

The blond glared at her, before shrugging his shoulders, conceding that she had a point but not wanting to admit it out loud. “What have you got?” he asked, looking over at Owen.

“Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes and Iconic Wizards of the Twentieth Century,” Owen answered, before asking Draco the same question.

Draco consulted his timetable, before stating that he had, “Care of Magical Creatures, Iconic Wizards and Divination.”

Alice frowned. “Why are you taking Care of Magical Creatures?” Alice questioned. “You hate animals.”

Draco shrugged his shoulders, finishing the last of his breakfast as he got to his feet. “The same reason you’re taking Muggle Studies; it’s easy and requires very little thinking. We’d better get to potions, unless you want Hart to give us detention,” he added.

Owen rolled his eyes. “You mean he’ll give me and Alice detention. You can get away with anything in his class,” he reminded the blond.

~

The first day of classes had been as bad as everyone had expected it to be and Alice had been glad she’d gotten through the day in one piece. Every teacher had insisted on diving straight into their lessons and they had gotten homework from three of their classes; it was like the teachers thought they were studying for their NEWTS with the amount of work they were being given.

If they’d thought the first day had been difficult and that the teachers would have eased off for their second day, the students had been sorely mistaken. If anything, the teachers were working them even harder. By lunchtime, Alice already had two new spells to learn and an essay to write; she was dreading what the rest of her teachers were going to give her that afternoon. 

Hers and Draco’s first class after lunch was Divination, and after she decided that she had no idea where Draco had vanished to, she slowly made her way up through the school to where she had been told the Divination classroom was. Halfway up the tower, she decided that the class had better be worth the walk. Eventually, she arrived at the top of the tower – which had to be taller than the astronomy tower – to find that there was already a small group of people gathered at one end of the corridor. 

As she approached, she glanced around trying to find Draco and scowling when she saw that Draco wasn’t in amongst the sea of Gryffindors. They were all looking up at the ceiling with identical looks of confusion on their faces. She followed their gazes and frowned when she saw that they were looking at a trap door in the ceiling. There was plaque next to it that read ‘River Song, Divination Teacher’. 

“How are we supposed to get up there?” Draco’s voice asked in her ear and Alice jumped wildly, turning on her heel and glaring at her best friend. “What?” he asked, a look of innocence on his face, even though his eyes betrayed his amusement.

Alice put her hands on her hips. “Where did you come from?”

The blond snorted with laughter and rolled his eyes, pointing to the staircase he’d evidently just come up. “Same place you did, I imagine,” he muttered. “Do you think there’s some kind of secret button we have to press or something?” he added, looking around Alice and nodding to the trap door.

Almost as if his words had been the cue, the trap door opened with a bang that made them all jump, seconds before a silvery ladder descended from the darkness above them. No one seemed to be willing to head up the ladder and Draco nudged his friend in the back. “After you,” he said, grinning angelically when she glared at him.

Alice huffed in irritation and slowly began climbing up the ladder, marvelling at how secure it actually was; it looked as though it would break the instant someone tried to climb up it. When she reached the top, she emerged in what was the strangest classroom she’d ever seen. It was like a cross between a tea-shop and an abandoned attic. There were approximately twenty circular tables dotted around the room and each of them was covered with a tattered tablecloth. 

“Where is she?” Draco murmured in her ear.

Before Alice could speak, a voice sounded from the shadows, making them all jump in surprise. “Welcome,” it said. Professor Song stepped out of the shadows and they were all surprised at how different from the other teacher’s she looked. She was wearing a flowing dress that had translucent sleeves and was gathered at the bottom, revealing shiny black boots that disappeared up to her knees. When she moved her head, there was a jingling sound and the light glistened off her earrings.

“Sit, sit,” she encouraged, indicating to the tables.

Quickly Alice and Draco threw themselves down at one of the tables closest to the back; they had a feeling that they would want to be as far away from the front as possible.

“Welcome to Divination,” Song said once they’d all sat down and she had their attention once more. “I feel I must warn you that Divination is the most difficult of all magical arts. If you do not have the sight, there is nothing I can do for you; there is only so much textbooks can teach us…”

Alice leant closer to Draco, whispering in his ear, “Do you think you have the ‘inner sight’?” she whispered, turning her head away from Song so she wouldn’t get in trouble for talking.

Draco snorted with laughter and rolled his eyes. “Of course I do,” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth. “Don’t you? Best leaving now, before you get too into the class,” he added, making Alice laugh a little louder than she intended to, earning her a glance from Song; although the Professor didn’t pause in explaining what Divination was about.

“I think the best way to start the year would be reading tea leaves,” she decided, pulling Alice’s attention away from Draco. “If you could pass me that large silver teapot?” she requested, turning to the nearest Gryffindor, Lavender Brown.

Visibly trembling, Lavender reached for the teapot and, privately Alice thought that it was a miracle she didn’t drop it. “Oh, and just to let you know that the thing you’re dreading is going to happen on Friday the fifteenth of October.”

At her words, Lavender’s trembling increased and Alice thought she was going to fall off her chair any second.

“Now,” Song continued, oblivious to Lavender’s terror, “I want you to divide into pairs.” Draco and Alice didn’t even look at each other; there was no question about it – they were going to be partners, regardless of if the other wanted to. “Collect a teacup from the shelf,” Song indicated to a long shelf behind them that was filled with mismatched cups and no saucers. “I will fill it and you can read each other’s tea-leaves.”

Many of the students jumped to their feet, seemingly eager to try out their Divination skills; Alice and Draco followed at a more sensible pace, joining the back of the queue. When Draco reached out for a blue cup, Alice smirked and took it from him, replacing it with a baby pink one instead. “Harkness,” the blond growled, trying to change cups, but the other Slytherin wasn’t letting him.

“It’s only a cup,” she said with a grin, placing her hand in his and dragging him over to Song.

Less than five minutes later, they were sitting back at their table, trying to force themselves to drink the nastiest tasting cup of tea either of them had ever tasted. “God, I hope this is worth it,” Draco muttered, finishing off the last of his tea and placing the cup down.

“Right,” Song said, clapping her hands once to get their attention. “Once you’ve drunk your tea, turn the cup upside down onto your saucer.” 

Just as Alice was about to demand what saucer she was talking about, a small plate appeared in front of them. “Oh, that saucer,” she murmured, rolling her eyes as she tipped the cup over, tapping the top in an attempt to encourage the tea leaves to fall from the cup.

“Now, place the cup to the side and swap with your partner. Try reading their leaves,” Song instructed. “If you are really stuck, consult your text books and try to interpret. I will assist if needed.”

Draco passed his saucer to Alice, before glancing down at hers. “Well, I think it’s obvious what this is,” he stated, looking up at her with amusement in his eyes. Alice raised an eyebrow. “A big pile of mush,” he added, smirking when she clamped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud. “Seriously, you don’t believe in this crap, do you?” he asked, lowering his voice so he couldn’t be heard.

Alice rolled her eyes. “Of course not,” she muttered. “Like I said, it’s an easy class.” Her eyes widened when she noticed Song heading in their direction and looked down at Draco’s leaves. “There’s a… sort of pistol shaped thing,” she mumbled, trying to not look at Draco because she knew she’d laugh if she did. “That means… trouble?” she estimated, half expecting Song to argue with her. She was amazed when Song nodded in encouragement.

“Mister Malfoy?” Song asked, nodding to the blond.

Sighing to himself, Draco looked down at Alice’s saucer, trying to force himself to see something in the large pile of tealeaves. “A bowler hat?” the blond ventured a guess. “But, if you look at it this way ‘round,” he mumbled, turning the saucer around, “it looks like an acorn. So you’re either going to become Minister for Magic, or receive an unexpected windfall.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “Can you imagine me wearing a bowler hat?” she asked, making a mock-hat with her hands as Draco snorted with laughter.

Song clicked her tongue impatiently and reached out, taking the saucer from the Slytherin’s hands. “Allow me?” she requested, despite already having the desired object in her hands. There was a moment of silence before Song drew in a gasp of horror and the saucer trembled dangerously in her hands. “My dear,” she whispered, tears filling in her eyes as she glanced over at Alice with a woeful expression on her face.

The dark haired Slytherin scowled deeply at her expression and tried to ignore the crowd of people that had suddenly materialised around them; every student wanted to hear what their teacher had to say – especially if it was something bad to happen to Alice, who many of the Gryffindors didn’t seem to care about. “What?” she asked, trying to keep from sounding too disrespectful; even though she knew it was obvious she didn’t care for the bizarre teacher.

“This is the Grim,” Song said, her lower lip trembling as she spoke. 

Draco scowled deeply and snatched the saucer from her. “That’s not a Grim,” he stated, looking up at Song with an irritated expression on his face. “I’m pretty sure it’s an acorn.”

Around them, the rest of the class burst into nervous chatter and, amongst them Draco could hear a Gryffindor ask, “What’s a Grim?”

Alice sighed and took the saucer from Draco, trying to see what Song had seen, but all she could see was what Draco had described. 

“A Grim is…” Song began, taking a deep breath that seemed to rattle in her chest. “It’s an omen of death.”

This time the silence that filled the room was even stronger than before and Alice winced at the tension she could feel around her. Draco rolled his eyes and leant back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “I’ve already told you,” he muttered, “that it not a Grim.”

A bell sounded, indicating the end of the lesson; although, no one moved away from the table. The only person who moved was Draco as he began stuffing his book into his backpack. 

When he noticed that Alice hadn’t moved and was still staring at Song, the blond rolled his eyes and collected her bag from underneath the table. “Come on,” he instructed, grabbing hold of her elbow and dragging her away from the distraught looking teacher.  
It was only when they left the classroom that Alice seemed to realise what he was doing and wrenched her arm from his grip. “Stop pulling me,” she instructed, snatching her back from him. 

Draco wasn’t listening as he marched down the corridor, muttering under his breath about how stupid Divination was and how he wished he’d taken something else. He only stopped ranting occasionally to ensure that the other Slytherin was still following him. Alice however wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying; she was still wrapped up in thoughts about whether Song could be right or not.

By the time they reached Rose’s classroom for their transfiguration lesson, Draco had stopped ranting, while Alice was still lost in her own thoughts.

Owen, who was waiting for them outside the classroom, scowled and looked at his watch as they approached. “What took you so long?” he demanded once they were in ear shot. “If you’d have been late Tyler would kill you.”

Draco rolled his eyes and pushed the classroom door open, entering the room and wincing when he saw how many students were already there. Owen was right, they were straddling the thin line between fashionably late and so late you get detention. 

“What’s with her?” Owen asked, sliding into the seat next to Draco and nodding over to Alice.

The blond Slytherin snorted and shook his head. “She’s going to die,” he replied matter-of-factly.

His words finally got Alice’s attention and she looked up sharply, glaring at her friend. “You’re not funny, Malfoy,” she muttered through clenched teeth. Owen frowned deeply and stared at her, silently demanding an answer from someone. “Professor Song saw a Grim in my tea leaves,” she answered, heaving a sigh as she spoke the words.

The two students in front of them jumped when Owen let out a bark of laughter and they turned to glare at him; a glare which Owen returned with venom, before turning back to Alice. “And you actually believe her?” he asked an incredulous tone to his voice.

Alice shook her head, opening her book as the door opened and Rose walked in, carrying a large owl on her arm. “Of course I don’t,” she muttered out of the corner of her mouth. “It’s just a little unnerving being told I’m going to die.”

Owen rolled his eyes. “We’re all going to die, Alice,” he pointed out. “It’s just a question of when, where and how.”

Alice chuckled and shook her head. She was prevented from answering when Rose began their lesson by telling them that they were going to be learning about Animagi – wizards who could turn themselves into animals at will.

~

TBC


	7. Attack Of The Hippogriff

**Chapter 7: Attack Of The Hippogriff**

That afternoon was their first Care of Magical Creatures lesson. As soon as they stepped outside of the castle, they were all surprised at how warm and bright it had become since the chilly start to the day they had all felt earlier.

Before they’d even left the court yard, many of the students had removed their cloaks and jumpers, leaving them in just their shirts and ties as they tried to cool down. 

As they walked, Draco reached into his bag and pulled his textbook out, fanning his face with it in an attempt to cool himself down. “Aren’t you warm?” he asked, glancing over at Alice and running his eyes over her attire. While the others had eagerly rid themselves of their heavy items of clothing, the female Slytherin hadn’t even removed her cloak, never mind her jumper.

Alice shook her head. “Not really,” she retorted, sticking her hands in the pockets of her robe and they carried on walking through the castle grounds. “I don’t get warm very often,” she added, just as they reached Donna who was waiting for them, just on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

They all stopped in horror several feet away from the Professor and stared in horror at her. Beside her was one of the strangest creatures Alice had ever seen. It had the body, hind legs and the tail of a horse. But its front legs, wings and head looked as though they belonged to a giant eagle.

She glared over her shoulder at Draco as the blond nudged her forward. “Erm, Professor,” she murmured, slowly inching closer to Donna. “What is that?” she asked nervously.

Donna beamed at them and ran her hand over the feathers of the creature’s neck. “This is a Hippogriff,” she stated. “Don’t be shy, you lot. You can come closer; he won’t hurt you.”

Draco scoffed and took a step closer, not moving any further forward than Alice. “I’d believe that more if it didn’t have claws the size of my hand!” he muttered to his friend.

“Shut up,” Alice muttered out of the corner of her mouth, elbowing him in the ribs. “Besides, they’re not claws; they’re talons.”

Draco rolled his eyes, holding his hands up in defence. “Oh, sorry,” he muttered sarcastically, turning to Owen and quietly continuing the conversation he had been having earlier that day with Owen about Jack’s book which was due out on Halloween.

“Right,” Donna said, dragging Alice’s attention away from Draco – although the blond didn’t stop talking quietly to Owen. “Who wants to volunteer?”

Unsurprisingly, not one single person volunteered and Alice sighed heavily before she raised her hand slowly. 

Donna grinned from ear to ear and beckoned her forward. “Right, now first things first, Hippogriffs are easily offended. Never insult one, because it might just be the last thing you do.”

Alice swallowed nervously and stopped in her tracks. “I don’t think this is such a good idea, Professor,” she murmured.

The redhead shook her head. “Don’t be daft,” she scoffed. “Just don’t insult him and you’ll be fine. Okay, now, Alice, you need to bow; it’s polite to let the Hippogriff make the first move.”

Alice sighed and glanced back at Draco and Owen for encouragement, only to discover that her friends still weren’t paying attention to anything other than their conversation. She rolled her eyes and licked her lips nervously, before bowing low to the beast in front of her; feeling like a complete idiot the entire time.

The Hippogriff stared at her for long enough to make her uncomfortable, before it shifted and, to her surprise, bowed low to her.

Donna grinned and patted Alice encouragingly on the shoulder. “I think he’ll probably let you fly on him,” she said, squeezing the young Slytherin’s shoulder.

“Excuse me?” Alice squeaked, looking up at her with wide eyes. “I didn’t sign up for that.”

The red-headed teacher laughed and urged Alice closer to the Hippogriff. “Go on. Buckbeak won’t hurt you,” she reiterated her earlier statement. “Just give it a try.”

Alice glanced over her shoulder at Draco and Owen, both of whom had abandoned their conversation and were watching her closely. Owen looked concerned as to her wellbeing, while Draco was wearing a smirk on his face and Alice had the feeling that he was going to be taking the mickey out of her for a while.

Sighing to herself, Alice squared her shoulders and took a step closer to Buckbeak. She hesitated, not knowing how to get onto the creatures back, before placing her foot on top of the Hippogriff’s wing, grabbing a hand full of feathers as she pulled herself so she was straddling Buckbeak’s back. 

Donna grinned and clapped a hand on the Hippogriff’s rear. Without warning, the twelve-foot wings flapped open and Alice barely had time to tighten her grip, before the creature took flight.

Alice drew in a deep gasp of breath as she held on for dear life. She was used to flying a broomstick and had been flying one for years, but this was nothing like she had ever experienced. She just hoped that the Doctor didn’t see what she was doing; he could give her hell for doing something so dangerous.

Buckbeak flew her once around the area, before returning Alice to where Donna was waiting with a large smile on her face. “Well done,” Donna cheered as Alice hopped down from the Hippogriff. “I told you it wasn’t difficult.”

Alice wanted to tell her that it hadn’t been easy staying on the creature, but she bit her tongue. She didn’t want to hurt her dad’s friend in front of the entire class. She took a step back, re-joining Draco and Owen as Donna starting telling them about Hippogriffs. 

Draco, of course wasn’t listening again. He had turned to Crabbe and was having what Alice thought was the most boring conversation she had ever heard. She wasn’t even sure what they were talking about, but she didn’t care either.

“Right,” Donna said, clapping her hands and drawing Alice’s attention back to her. “Who wants to ride Buckbeak next?”

No one answered her until Draco pulled himself away from the conversation and took a step forward, pushing up the sleeves of his shirt. “I’ll do it,” he stated, a smug smile spreading across his face. “I mean, how hard can it be?”

Alice bit her lip and watched as Draco headed straight for Buckbeak, not bothering to bow, before he reached out and ran a hand over the creature’s feathers. “See,” he stated. “I told you it wasn’t difficult. You’re not dangerous are you, you great brute?” the blond asked, a condescending tone in his voice.

What followed happened so fast none of them could stop it. Buckbeak lashed out at Draco and the blond let out a high pitched howl of pain before falling to the ground, clutching his arm in pain.

Alice rushed over to her friend’s side as Donna struggled to restrain Buckbeak. The blond Slytherin’s previously white shirt was now smattered with blood and she had to grit her teeth to force herself to not react to the presence of the crimson liquid.

“Donna!” Alice cried, grateful for the excuse to tear her eyes away from her friend who had his eyes screwed in pain. “He’s bleeding a lot.”

Donna quickly rushed over and inspected the wound, swearing so quietly under her breath that only Alice could hear her. “I’ll take him to the hospital wing,” she assured the female Slytherin. “I don’t want any of the rest of you near Buckbeak,” she added over her shoulder as she helped Draco to his feet.

There were scoffs as Donna helped Draco towards the school, supporting him in case he was dizzy from the blood loss. It was obvious that none of them intended on getting any closer to the hippogriff than they were.

Alice watched from where she was standing as Donna escorted Draco from the area. She wanted to follow them immediately, but couldn’t bring her feet to move. Everything felt so unreal. She had seen people being attacked by animals on television and had never felt anything other than slight sympathy, but watching her friend get attacked had suddenly made everything so real for her.

“Did you see how much blood there was?” Owen muttered in her ear from where he was standing beside her.

Mutely she nodded her head. Of course she had noticed; she had tried her hardest to ignore how much of the red liquid there was. Alice had long since learnt to resist the instinctive hunger she felt whenever she was around fresh blood. It was only when there was a large amount that she found it hard to quash the vampire inside her. Not that she could tell Owen any of that – it had been one of her great-uncle’s conditions of attendance at Hogwarts; no one was allowed to know that she wasn’t completely human, otherwise she would be sent home to be schooled at a different facility.

“Come on,” Owen muttered, snapping her out of the daze that she was in and tugging at her elbow. “Let’s follow them.”

Alice was about to agree when she remembered that they had another lesson – Potions – to attend after Care of Magical Creatures. “We can’t,” she said, shaking her head. “We’ve got potions.”

Owen scoffed and shook his head. “So?” he retorted. “We’re only halfway through this lesson. Going to the hospital wing won’t affect potions.”

“Yes, but by the time we get to the hospital wing it’ll be almost time for potions and then we’ll have to go all the way back down to the dungeons; and you can bet that the staircases will change on our way there and we’ll be late,” Alice argued, picking her bag up from where she had dropped it on the ground.

The other Slytherin huffed and his shoulders slumped as he stomped after Alice when she started out of the small area. “I hate when you’re right,” he muttered through clenched teeth, letting the gate fall closed behind him. 

~ 

When they arrived at Potions, both her and Owen had been forced to explain to Hart what had happened to Draco. If they had ever doubted that Draco really was his godson, all doubt was erased from their minds when he paled and looked as though he was ready to cancel the lesson completely.

Unfortunately, they had clearly been getting their hopes up too soon as Hart quickly collected himself and barked at them to take their seats otherwise he would take points from them for loitering in his classroom.

The rest of the afternoon dragged more than any other period of time Alice could think of, and by the time the final bell rang after History of Magic, indicating that classes were finished for the day, Alice was sure she was about to go crazy. Quickly, her and Owen quickly gathered their things and ran from the room, tearing through the castle and heading straight to the Hospital Wing. 

Madame Pomfrey was exiting the hospital as they approached and she jumped to the side in order to avoid being run over by the students. “Fourth bed on the left,” she called after them, chuckling and shaking her head as she closed the door and headed to her office.

The hospital wing was empty except for the bed Draco was currently lying in. The blond stirred as he heard their footsteps approaching and he rolled over onto his back so he could see who had arrived.

Alice saw him roll his eyes and narrowed her own as he muttered, “Can’t a guy get injured in peace around here?”

Ignoring his indignant protests, Alice jumped on the bed and pushed him over so she was sitting with her back against the pillows while Owen chose for a more sensible seat at the end of the bed. “How’s your arm?” Alice asked, leaning her head back against the wood of the headboard.

Draco glared at her. “How do you think?” he snapped. “Why do you insist on asking such stupid questions?”

Alice squeezed his good arm so hard it made him yelp and try to extract himself from her vice-like grip. “If you didn’t keep ending up in here, I wouldn’t have to keep asking if you’re okay. You’re here more than I am.”

From where he was sitting on the end of the bed, Owen snorted with laughter and shook his head. “That’s not possible,” he pointed out. “The only person that’s here more than you is Madame Pomfrey.”

The Slytherin glared at him, but was prevented from commenting when Draco sighed heavily and they both turned to look at him with a questioning expression on their faces. “What’s wrong with you?” Alice demanded, raising an eyebrow.

Draco bit his lip, before shaking his head. “I was trying to decide whether or not I wanted to show you this,” he murmured, reaching under his pillow with his good hand. “But I figure you’re going to find out about it anyway. I might as well tell you now.” He handed her a piece of parchment that was neatly folded into quarters.

Alice frowned deeply and snatched the parchment from her friend’s hand, unfolding it and reading it quickly. Almost immediately, she drew in a horrified gasp and by the time she got to the bottom of the letter she was absolutely furious. “What did you tell him?” she demanded, looking up from the letter and at her friend with venom in her eyes.

Draco shifted uncomfortably under the intensity of her glare. “Exactly what happened,” he swore. “I told him that I didn’t hear Donna explain not to insult the beast, so when I called it ugly, it reacted violently and attacked me.”

Owen frowned deeply and reached out for the letter, taking it from Alice’s hand and letting his brown eyes skim Lucius Malfoy’s elegant handwriting. “Your father’s putting all the blame on Donna,” he stated, handing the letter back to the female Slytherin and looking over at Draco.

The blond huffed and shifted on the pillows. “I know,” he muttered, an abashed look on his face. “I think one of the other Slytherins must have written to him saying that what happened was her fault. I swear to you that I didn’t say anything bad against her,” he added, glancing over at Alice. It was obvious to anyone who knew her that Alice was incredibly close to Donna, having had regular contact with her throughout her childhood.

Alice bit her lip before slowly nodding her head. “I believe you,” she whispered, looking into his grey eyes for a moment before clearing her throat and diverting her gaze to the letter she was holding once more. “What are we going to do?” 

“There’s nothing we can do,” Draco answered, regret clear in his voice. “I can’t… You know I can’t go against my father. I…” He trailed off and shook his head, refusing to say anything further.

Alice and Owen fell silent; each of them trying to think of what they could do to help Donna. Before any of them could say a word, Madame Pomfrey bustled over and began kicking up a fuss about Draco needing his rest, before expelling the non-injured Slytherins from the hospital wing.


	8. Interlude

**Chapter 8: Interlude**

Ianto yawned widely and ran a hand over his face. He knew that if any of his students – or colleagues for that matter - were to enter his office, they would be surprised at how undignified he currently was.

He had finished doing the rounds through the dungeons and the Slytherin common room, before heading to his office where he could close the door and pretend there was no one else in the castle.

When he’d graduated from Hogwarts, returning as a teacher had been the last thing he’d ever thought he’d do. He had taken a job with the Ministry of Magic, working alongside his father initially, before moving departments. The Charms Professor pinched the bridge of his nose with the thumb and forefinger on his left hand. He remembered the day he’d moved departments as clear as if the day had been yesterday. It had been the day after Lucia had been killed by Voldemort. 

Jack had come to him with a baby Alice in his arms and had begged him to follow him to the Muggle world where he was planning on bringing up his daughter. He’d turned twenty-one two months before and that, coupled with the prospect of losing a job he had worked so hard for, had made him reluctant to mimic Jack’s actions and leave their world.

“Are you going to lie there all night, or are you planning on acknowledging me?” a familiar voice cut through his musings, making him jump in surprise.

Ianto frowned and pushed himself into an upright position, rolling his eyes when he saw Jack’s face floating in the crackling fire. “How long have you been there?” he asked, leaning back on the couch and folding his arms across his chest as he studied his lover’s features.

“About five minutes,” Jack answered. “I’ve been checking in every half hour or so. What have you been doing all night?” he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

The Welshman rolled his eyes. “I’ve got a job to do, J, remember? I don’t just finish work when the classes are over, you know.”

The floating head glared at him and Ianto could tell that the other man was trying very hard to not stick his tongue out or something equally as childish. “Well, I suggest you get your arse off that couch and meet me in the shrieking shack.”

Ianto let out a noise that could only be described as a whine. “J, it’s past midnight. What are you doing at the shrieking shack?” he asked warily.

Jack smirked. “Well, I’m currently sitting naked in front of the fire trying to convince my stubborn boyfriend to get his arse off the chair,” he answered, earning him a growl from the other wizard. “Now,” he continued, “are you going to stop being an idiot, or should I just go home?”

The professor’s eyes narrowed as he stared into the flames, before Ianto huffed and pushed himself off of the couch. “Fine,” he muttered, crossing the room and pulling his cloak from where he had thrown it over the back of a chair. “Get out of my fire, I’m on my way,” he instructed, looking over his shoulder at Jack, who had already vanished.

Grumbling to himself, Ianto grabbed his wand, casting a disillusionment charm and headed out of his office. The corridors and grounds were silent as he went, which he was glad about; he really didn’t feel up to having to put someone in detention for being out of bounds. At the base of the Whomping Willow, he paused and looked around to ensure that he wasn’t being observed. 

At the base of the Whomping Willow, he pulled his wand out and, using a branch from the ground, he levitated it and pressed the knot that would freeze the tree in place.

The Shrieking Shack was silent as Ianto clambered through the trap door. Knowing that there was only one place Jack could be, he headed straight up the rickety staircase. Even though Jack hadn’t been the best student in charms, he hadn’t done a shabby job with ridding the building of dust it had accumulated over the years.

“Okay, you win; I’m here, what-?” Ianto’s voice trailed off as he stepped into the master bedroom and stopped in his tracks, a rush of arousal immediately washing over him.

Jack was lying in the centre of the large double bed, as naked as he had said. His legs were spread and his fist was curled around his already erect cock. “I thought you were never going to get here,” Jack breathed, running his thumb over the head as he looked at Ianto with lust filled silver eyes. 

Ianto’s breath hitched. “Clearly you had no trouble starting without me,” he commented, finding his voice after a while of silence.

The other wizard simply smirked and twisted his hand around his cock. The action made him moan loudly and he writhed on the bed. “I was going to wait for you,” he half-whispered, half-groaned as he pumped himself, “but you were taking too long.”

The welsh-man rolled his eyes and moved further into the room, shrugging his cloak off as he went. “Well, don’t let me stop you,” Ianto murmured, sitting on the edge of the bed and nodding to Jack’s cock.

Jack grinned, flashing his fanged teeth at the other man, before resuming his task. He groaned and ran his thumb over the swollen head of his cock as he reached down to roll his balls in left hand.

“You look so hot,” Ianto murmured, licking his lips and lightly running the tips of his fingers down Jack’s thigh. 

The welsh-man batted his lover’s hand away, pulling a loud whine from Jack. “Shh,” he whispered, lowering his head and sucking Jack’s cock into his mouth. Immediately, Jack groaned loudly and his hand flew down to bury his fingers in his boyfriend’s hair, encouraging him to suck more of him.

Not that Ianto needed much encouragement. He opened his mouth even wider and relaxed his throat as he let Jack push him further down, before the vampire starting fucking his mouth vigorously. While Jack was distracted by how good Ianto’s mouth felt, the teacher reached down and slid his index finger around the tight muscle of Jack’s entrance.

Above him, the vampire moaned and arched his back, pushing more of himself into Ianto’s mouth with a soft moan. “God, Ianto,” he breathed, tightening his hold on the other man’s hair. “Don’t fucking tease,” he added, silver eyes meeting blue when Ianto looked up at him through his eyelashes.

A smirk tugged at the corners of Ianto’s mouth and he pulled away, letting Jack’s cock fall from his lips, which drew a whine of protest from the other man. “You are an evil, evil man,” Jack groaned, narrowing his eyes at Ianto who was looking at him with a look that could only be described as… well, evil.

“You have no idea,” Ianto purred, roughly pushing two fingers inside Jack and drawing a shout of pain tinged pleasure from his boyfriend. 

A grin spread across his face at the look of ecstasy on Jack’s face as he worked on pleasuring the other man; he was going to be exhausted the following day, but Ianto knew it would be worth it.

~

Ianto was about to die from the cold, he was positive of it. He was used to being chilly while he slept; vampire’s had a lower body temperature than human’s, so Jack always felt slightly chilly compared to his own body temperature. But even taking Jack’s lack of internal heat into account, Ianto was positive that he’d never been as cold as he was then.

Forcing his eyes open, Ianto ran a hand over his face and looking around. As he slowly began to fully wake up, the Welshman remembered that he was still in the Shrieking Shack, with a snoring Jack lying next to him, unaware of how cold Ianto actually was.

“J,” he muttered, nudging the other man in the side and trying to pull the blanket that was tightly wrapped around the vampire. Jack snorted in his sleep and rolled in the opposite direction, cocooning himself further into the blankets. The charms teacher growled in annoyance and lifted a hand, flicking the slightly older man’s ear.

“What?” Jack grumbled, turning his head to the left and forcing his eyes open to glare at his boyfriend.

Ianto tried to pull the blankets away from the other man. “It’s freezing and you’re hogging the blankets,” he informed Jack. “Just for a change,” he added darkly, finally managing to pull the covers from Jack’s body.

Jack rolled over and watched in amusement as Ianto covered himself back up and tried to get warm. “You can’t be that cold,” he chuckled, yawning widely and running a hand over his eyes. He shifted closer, wrapping a cold leg around Ianto’s and burying his face in the other’s chest. “What time is it?” he whispered, closing his eyes again.

“I have no idea,” Ianto confessed, looking out of the window to where the sun hadn’t even started rising yet. “I can’t stay for much longer, though.”

The other wizard let out a noise of discontent as he tried to shuffle even closer. “Go back to sleep then,” he whispered, pressing a kiss against Ianto’s chest before following his own instructions and falling back to sleep.

Ianto knew that he shouldn’t – he had to be back at the school in time for his first class – but the lull of sleep was too tempting and he was finding it increasingly difficult to keep his eyes open; it wasn’t long before they were both fast asleep again.

TBC


	9. The Boggart, The Witch and The Wardrobe

**Chapter 9: The Boggart, The Witch and The Wardrobe**

The first Friday of term started with Defence Against the Dark Arts with Remus, much to the relief of Alice and her friends. Almost every other student in the school had already had a lesson with him, but no one would tell the third year Slytherins what they should expect.

Draco was still in the hospital wing. He was claiming that Madame Pomfrey was making him stay, but Alice and Owen knew him better; he was milking his injury for all it was worth in an attempt to get some more sleep – he really was the laziest person they knew. 

The Slytherin class all wolfed down their breakfasts as quickly as possible, and as a result they were making their way to Remus’ classroom before many of the other students had even arrived for breakfast. 

When they arrived at the classroom, they found that the door was locked and a piece of parchment was taped to the door, bearing the message, ‘Please go to classroom F on the fourth floor’. The students frowned and looked at each other in confusion, before shrugging their shoulders and following the professor’s instructions.

On the fourth floor, Remus was waiting for them outside the classroom. “Ah,” he murmured, a grin spreading across his face when he saw the students approach him. “You managed to find me okay, I see,” he greeted.

He opened the door and stepped to the side, ushering the students inside and closing the door behind them. Alice and the other students stood in the centre of the dusty room, looking around them in confusion. 

“Now,” Remus began, moving around the students so he was standing in front of a large dustsheet covered object. “I bet you’re all wondering why I’ve brought you up here,” he said, clapping his hands together and grinning around at them.

“Well,” he continued, reaching up and pulling the dustsheet down, revealing an old wardrobe. “This is why.”

Remus chuckled to himself at the murmurs of confusion his statement received. “I know this looks like an ordinary wardrobe,” he stated. “But, it’s what it contains that I’m not interested in.” He rested a hand against the wooden door and the class jumped in fear when there a bang from inside and the wardrobe shook violently.

The professor laughed when the class took one uniformed step back. “Don’t worry; it’s perfectly safe. The Boggart can’t get out until I release it.”

“A Boggart?” Alice whispered under her breath, unable to stop herself. She remembered the Doctor having one in his desk drawer when she’d visited him prior to starting Hogwarts; she just couldn’t remember how he had gotten rid of it.

Remus heard her and nodded his head, a smile on his face. “Does anyone – beside Miss Harkness – know what a Boggart is?” he asked, glancing around the room. When he received nothing but blank looks in return, he turned back to Alice, “Miss Harkness?”

Alice swallowed nervously; she hated when she had to speak in front of the class and generally tried to avoid it as much as possible. “It’s a shape-shifter,” she replied. “It’ll take the shape of whatever it thinks will scare us the most.”

Remus nodded his head, beaming from ear to ear as he awarded Slytherin five house points. “The Boggart sitting inside this wardrobe doesn’t currently have a form, but when I let it out it will take the form of whatever it thinks will scare one of us the most. Now, in a group this size it will encounter a problem it won’t expect. Who can venture a guess at what that issue is?” he asked, glancing around at the class; he purposely didn’t look at Alice, making it obvious that he wanted an answer from someone else in the glass.

There was a moment of silence before Blaise Zabini tentatively raised his hand. Remus grinned and indicated for him to speak. “Because there’s so many of us it won’t know what to turn into?” the Slytherin guessed.

Remus grinned widely and nodded his head. “Excellent, Mr. Zabini. Five points to Slytherin. That’s why it’s best to always have company when you’re dealing with a Boggart; it means you’ll immediately have the advantage. Right,” he clapped his hands, making them all jump, “who wants to go first?”

Surprisingly, over half the class raised their hands eagerly, which made Remus smile widely. “Mr Zabini,” he said, turning to Blaise who was beaming with more excitement than Alice could ever remember seeing. “Since you answered my question so perfectly, you may have the first stab at facing the Boggart.”

Blaise’s normally tanned complexion paled and Alice couldn’t help feeling sorry for her classmate; she knew that she wouldn’t want to be the first person to face the Boggart in front of everyone. He took a deep breath and nodded his breath, silently indicating to Remus that he was ready before he took a step forward, wand in hand and poised, ready to fight his worst fear.

“Before I open this door, there are two things you need to remember when facing a Boggart,” Remus explained, stepping between the student and the wardrobe. “The first is that laughter is what repels a Boggart better than anything. I want you to always be thinking about how you can make your worst fear funny.” Even though he was looking directly at Blaise, his voice was clear and loud enough that everyone in the room could hear and take notice of. Alice felt a bolt of dread rush through her when she tried to think of how she could make her worst fear funny and she couldn’t even think of what she was scared of most. “The second thing I want you to remember,” Remus continued, pulling Alice from her thoughts, “is the spell you will need to send a Boggart packing. You should try that now. Actually, everyone repeat after me,” he added, turning away from Blaise and addressing all of the class. “Riddikulus.”

It was one of the most… well, ridiculous sounding spells Alice had ever heard and she doubted it would repel anything, never mind something that was disguised as your worst fear, but she trusted Remus to teach them correctly and repeated the spell along with the rest of the class; a response that made Remus grin and his eyes sparkle brighter than she could remember for a long time.

“Excellent!” Remus exclaimed, the grin never leaving his face. “Now, Mr Zabini, have you decided how you can make your worst fear funny?” Blaise’s gaze wavered for a second, before he focused his eyes once more and he nodded his head firmly. “Good luck,” their teacher whispered, moving over the wardrobe and slowly unlatching the door. The class gasped in unison when the door burst open almost immediately and a black mist burst out, swooping forward before stopping in front of Blaise. There was a slight pause – during which everyone held their breath, Alice noticed – before a loud crack filled the air and, where the mist had once been now stood an elderly witch, who was looking at Blaise with a look of immense disgust on her face.

“That’s his grandmother,” Alice heard Pansy Parkinson whisper loudly.

The Blaise’s Boggart-Grandmother sneered when her beady black eyes landed on Blaise, which made the third-year Slytherin gulp nervously and take a small step back. “Remember what I said about laughter, Mr Zabini,” Remus instructed from where he was observing near the window.

His words seemed to have the desired effect, because no sooner had he spoke them did Blaise take a deep breath in and raised his wand. When he spoke the spell, his voice was so quiet that Alice barely heard it and Remus shook his head. “You need to speak up, Mr Zabini. Remember, it doesn’t have power over you; you have power over it.”

Blaise nodded and lifted his wand once more. This time when he spoke, there was no hesitation in his voice and it was clearly audible to the others. “Riddikulus!”

The effect on the Boggart was instantaneous. Blaise’s Boggart-Grandmother gasped and reached a gloved hand up to her head. She let out a howl of horror that was loud enough to rattle the windows in their frames as she lowered her hand to find the palm filled with a large clump of hair.

The class sniggered quietly as she continued to pull her hair out, getting louder and more distraught with each chunk that was pulled from her head. When she was completely bald, Remus instructed Blaise to step back and, as the rest of the class began taking turns with tackling the Boggart, Alice started trying to work out what form her Boggart would take.

Her first thought was that she was terrified of losing her dad and being alone. Almost as soon as she’d decided on that fear, she sensed something edging into her mind and dread filled her when she thought about the Dementors. She had no desire to experience a repeat of what had happened on the train in front of her class; it was embarrassing enough when it had happened in front of her friends.

As the rest of the group took their turns with the Boggart, Alice started to feel more and more apprehensive. Not only did she not want to find herself face to face with a Dementor in front of everyone, she had no idea how you could possibly make something that looked like that less scary.

She took a step forward when it was her turn and raised her wand, trying to grip it as tight as she could in her sweaty palm. The clown with smudged make up another student had transformed the boggart into turned and observed Alice standing before it. Quickly the room seemed to grow colder and it wasn’t long before Alice could see her breath in the air in front of her face. The clown grew in size as it started to shift its shape into what Alice knew was going to be a Dementor.

Just as the shape of a Dementor started to become clearer, Remus turned to see who was facing the Boggart now. His eyes widened and he immediately yelled, “Here!” Immediately, the Dementor lost interest in Alice and flew across the room to where Remus was waiting expectantly. Alice and the rest of the class watched as the Dementor transformed into Jack; only he was grey and his skin was practically falling from his bones. It was obvious to anyone that the man in front of them was dying, even if they didn’t know what of or who he was. Alice, Owen and Draco were the only three students who were aware of who the new man was. And Alice was the only one who knew what Jack was dying from – ingestion of the only potion known to kill a vampire.

Remus didn’t appear to be unmoved by the sight of his best friend dying in front of him. He calmly raised his wand and simply said, “Riddikulus.” The fake-Jack gasped and his hands flew up to his face, desperately trying to stop the grey skin from falling away from his skeleton. Remus lifted his wand and pointed it at the wardrobe, which the Boggart immediately retreated to and slammed the door behind it.

The teacher let out a chuckle which sounded extremely fake to Alice and turned to address the shell-shocked class. “Well done, everyone,” he congratulated them. “I think that’s enough excitement for today.” He crossed the room and opened the door, letting the class out and congratulating them one by one on their successful defeat of their Boggart.

“Aren’t you coming?” Draco asked, turning to face Alice when he realised that she hadn’t followed him and Owen.

Alice bit her lip and shook her head. “I want to talk to Remus about something,” she said. “I’ll see you in a bit.” Draco and Owen shared a confused look, before the blond shrugged his shoulders and marched out of the classroom with Owen hot on his heels. 

Remus watched the friends leave and closed the door behind them, knowing that Alice was the only one left in the room. “Is there something wrong?” he asked, crossing the room until he came to a stop in front of the young girl he considered his niece. 

The teenage Slytherin looked up and met his gaze, studying him so intently that it started to make the professor uncomfortable. “Your Boggart is my dad,” she eventually said. “My dad dying from Rowan poisoning.”

Her father’s best friend nodded his head, moving around Alice and leaning against a dusty old desk. “When we were teenagers, your dad was poisoned with Rowan and almost died. My Boggart has been him dying ever since. I’d never gotten so close to losing someone I cared about before; I was so scared I don’t think I slept or ate until we were sure he’d be okay,” he confessed softly, a note of fear lingering in his voice even though what he was talking about had happened almost twenty years before. 

Alice, knowing how close her dad and Remus were, felt her heart ache for the professor and she threw her arms around him, hugging Remus tightly before he could react. “Dad’s fine,” she whispered into his robes. “The potion didn’t work.”

Remus smiled and wrapped his arms around the Slytherin student. “I know,” he replied softly, pressing a kiss against the top of her head. “I know.”

TBC


	10. Access Denied

**Chapter 10: Access Denied**

Their first visit to Hogsmeade was scheduled for the week before Christmas and every one Alice spoke to couldn’t wait to finally be free of the castle and explore the village they had been told so much about by their older housemates. Their signed permission forms had been handed in to Rose two days before and she’d already confirmed that everyone who had a signed form would be allowed to spend the entire afternoon in the Wizarding village.

Alice woke at the first sign of sunlight streaming in through the window and grinned to herself when she realised the day. She couldn’t wait to stock up on her favourite Warding sweets and exploring Zonko's Joke Shop for tricks she could use on Draco and Owen. 

When she decided that it was finally a reasonable hour to get up, Alice threw on her dressing gown and ran into the boy’s dormitory, only to find that her two best friends were still asleep in their beds, oblivious to her excitement about the upcoming day. 

“Wha?” Draco whined, burying his face in the pillow when his best friend jumped onto his bed. 

The female Slytherin poked him painfully in the side, trying her hardest to wake him up. “Come on,” she instructed impatiently. “We’re going to Hogsmeade today!” she added, pulling Draco’s pillow out from under his head and launching it across the room to where Owen was still sleeping.

“Harkness,” Draco growled, rolling over onto his back and glaring at her as Owen detangled himself from the mess of blankets. “If you don’t get out of here, I’m going to kill you slowly and in the most painful way possible.”

Alice snorted with laughter. “I’d like to see you try, Malfoy,” she retorted, catching the pillow when it was thrown back by Owen. “Why aren’t you excited?” she demanded, a pout forming as she dropped the pillow onto Draco’s face.

“Probably because we’ve been living in the magic world all our lives,” Owen muttered, yawning widely and running a hand over his face. 

Draco pulled the pillow off his head. “Or it could be because I’m not going to Hogsmeade,” he added.

Alice’s eyes widened at his words. “What?” she shrieked, earning her annoyed shouts from the rest of the dormitory. “Yes, you are.”

The blond pushed himself into an upright position and ran a hand through his hair, trying to flatten it as best as he could without a comb or wand. “I forgot to ask my mother to sign the form before we came back to school and my father’s been in France on business since August,” he told her with a shrug of his shoulders. “I only remembered when Tyler was collecting the forms and by then it was too late.”

“You’re useless,” Alice whined. “Have you told Rose? Maybe she can-.”

Draco shook his head, cutting off her suggestion before she had finished speaking. “I already tried asking Tyler if she’d accept my mother’s permission closer to the date, but she said that there was nothing she could do; rules were rules,” he finished with another shrug of his shoulders, before reaching under his pillow, grabbing his wand and heading into the bathroom without saying another word.

~

Alice had spent the rest of the morning, trying to think of ways that her and Owen could smuggle their best friend to Hogsmeade, and each of the ideas were stranger than the last. When she suggested he don a blond wig and pretend to be Rose, Draco had ordered that she stop before he locked himself in the dorm room away from her for the rest of the weekend.

Reluctantly, she had let it drop and it wasn’t long before her and Owen found themselves putting on their robes in preparation for leaving. Draco, who had been complaining that he would be finally glad to get rid of them, stood in the doorway to the castle watching them with a look akin to jealousy on his face. As she secured her scarf, Alice turned her head to the side and caught the look on her best friend’s face. “I told you to sneak out,” she said, her tone vey matter of fact.

Draco rolled his eyes. “We’ve had this discussion, Harkness,” he muttered, folding his arms across his chest and leaning against the stone door frame. “I’ve accepted that I’m not going; why can’t you?”

Owen nudged her in back when she looked like she was going to argue further, affectively silencing the young girl’s argument. “Just leave it, Alice,” he instructed, adjusting his cloak before looking up at Draco. “We’ll bring you back something from Honeydukes,” he assured Draco, earning him a nod of thanks before he grabbed Alice’s arm and pulled her across the courtyard.

As they approached Rose, who was counting the number of students, the Doctor stepped out from behind a pillar and grinned down at Alice and Owen; although Alice was sure that the smile didn’t fully reach his eyes. “Alice, can I have a quick word?” he requested. The female Slytherin nodded her head, but didn’t make any effort to move away from the small group of people who were trying to look like they weren’t eavesdropping. The Doctor noticed that she wasn’t planning on moving and sighed lightly. “I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to go to Hogsmeade today,” he said slowly, obviously trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible.

Alice, however, had no such qualms. “What?” she cried, drawing attention from every one and a disapproving look from Rose; although that seemed to be aimed at the Doctor, rather than her. “Why not? My dad has already signed the permission slip; he’s letting me go. It’s not your choice.”

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed at her words and opened his mouth, clearly planning on pulling her up about the way she was talking to him in public. A pointed look and a shake of the head from Rose was all it took to calm him down and he sighed heavily, before placing a hand on Alice’s shoulder and pulling her away from the others. “I know that your dad’s signed the permission slip,” he began. “But I’m the headmaster of this school and if I say that you’re not going, its final.” Alice scowled and opened her mouth, but the Doctor’s next words silenced her momentarily. “I mean it, Alice. If I find out that you’ve set foot outside these castle gates, I will expel you.”

Her jaw dropped open in surprise at his words; she had never heard him speak like that to her before. The Doctor was always harsh when he spoke to Jack, but he had never been anything but caring and gentle when speaking to Alice. “You’ll… expel me?” she whispered when she finally managed to find her voice.

The Doctor nodded his head firmly. “You heard me. Don’t look at me like that, Alice,” he requested seeing her eyes narrow in irritation. “There’s a murderer on the loose and, as far as we know, he could be coming for you. Black has been in Azkaban for over ten years; that would be enough to drive even the sanest man beyond the brink of madness. You are not going and that is final.”

Knowing that there was no way for her to convince him otherwise, Alice scowled and sulkily folded her arms across her chest. “Fine,” she muttered, turning on her heel and stalking over to Owen. 

“What was that about?”

Alice glanced back over his shoulder, glaring at the Doctor, before turning back to Owen. “I can’t go to Hogsmeade with you,” she told him.

Owen’s eyes widened and he couldn’t help exclaiming, “What?”

A sigh escaped Alice’s mouth and she shrugged. “I’m not allowed,” she explained, her tone only slightly mocking the Doctor. “He won’t let me with Black on the loose.”

Before Owen could speak, Rose’s voice called across the courtyard, “Mr Harper, if you don’t hurry up, you won’t be going to Hogsmeade either.”

Owen threw an apologetic look at Alice, before hurrying after Rose and the other students, not wanting to miss out on going to the village. Alice watched them go from where she was standing beside Draco. She waited until Owen was out of sight before she turned on her heel and stalked back inside the castle without saying another word.

Draco huffed in annoyance and jogged after his best friend. “Will you slow down?” he snapped breathlessly as he tried to keep up.

“Stop following me,” Alice muttered, not slowing her pace or looking back. 

The blond rolled his eyes and continued trailing behind her. “Do you even know where you’re going?” he demanded, deciding that jogging was the best way to keep up; how the hell was she able to move so fast? 

Alice sighed heavily and finally stopped moving. “Not really,” she confessed, turning to face Draco who was resting his hands on his thighs as he tried to catch his breath. 

“What did the Doctor say?” Draco asked when he could finally speak properly. “One minute you were fine, and now you look like Christmas has been cancelled.”

Alice’s eyes narrowed at his words and she scowled. “He won’t let me go to Hogsmeade when there’s a serial killer on the loose,” she muttered irritably. 

To her surprise, Draco nodded his head. “That makes sense,” he murmured, earning himself a fierce glare from his best friend. “What? If Black was after me, I wouldn’t head to the village he’s supposedly heading for.”

“What?”

Draco raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t know?” He snorted with laughter and shook his head. “Don’t you ever read the newspaper, Harkness? Black was seen in Dufftown last week.” The blank look Alice was giving him made him huff in annoyance. “I swear,” he muttered. “It’s not that far away from here. I’m not surprised the Doctor doesn’t want you anywhere he can’t keep an eye on you.”

Alice frowned and looked away from her friend. His words made sense; if Black really had been seen not that far away from the castle, she could understand the Doctor’s reluctance to not let her go. Roughly, she pushed that thought away with a shake of her head; her dad trusted her to be careful, why couldn’t the Doctor?

She turned to Draco, intent on complaining about her great-uncle once more, only to discover that her blond friend was nowhere to be seen. “Draco?” she called, trying to not sound panicked as she looked around, trying to find him.

“What?” Draco’s disembodied voice asked in irritation, before his head appeared out of nowhere. “I knew you weren’t listening!” he exclaimed, rolling his eyes and shaking his head, which seemed to be floating against the brickwork of the castle. Before she could say anything else, the rest of his body appeared and Alice frowned deeply.

“How did you do that?” she demanded, nodding to the wall where he had reappeared from.

The blond shrugged his shoulders. “No idea,” he murmured. “I pressed my hand against the wall and fell through it!”

Alice laughed loud at his words and took a step forward, running her hand over the brickwork and gasping when it disappeared before her eyes. “It must be some kind of illusion,” she mused. She took a step forward and shivered when a chill pass over her as she passed through the charm. Glancing to the left, and then to the right, she saw two corridors which looked exactly the same as every other corridor in the school, except there were no portraits on the walls. “I think it’s some kind of secret passageway,” she called over her shoulder.

Draco stepped forward, through the charm and glanced down the corridors. “Where do you think they go?” 

The female Slytherin shrugged her shoulders. “Somewhere else in the castle, I presume. We won’t know until we follow one of them,” she added, glancing to the right and taking a step in that direction.

Before she could move a step, Draco reached out and placed a hand on her arm. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Harkness,” he argued. “This could go anywhere; the last thing I want to do is get lost down a secret passageway that no-one knows about!”

Alice rolled her eyes and shrugged his hand off. “I doubt we’re going to get lost,” she retorted, stalking away from him and heading down the corridor to the right. “The corridor has to end somewhere,” she added over her shoulder as she continued walking.

Behind her, she heard Draco mutter, “Why do I always let myself get talked into this kind of stuff?” to himself, before he hurried after her. “If we get lost and die down here, Harkness, I will hate you for the rest of eternity,” he added to which Alice merely chuckled and shook her head in amusement.

The corridor was like nothing Alice had ever seen in the castle before. While magic (and houselves, she presumed) kept the rest of the castle immaculate, the secret passageway obviously wasn’t included in any cleaning spells that had been cast. There was a thick layer of dust on the floor, and the walls appeared to be covered in some kind of moss – at least Alice hoped that’s what it was; she didn’t want to think about it being some kind of magical super plant that could kill her, or something equally as (hopefully) unlikely.

After ten feet or so, the light that had been coming from the entrance to the corridor faded and gradually disappeared, forcing the teenage Slytherins to use their wands to light their way as they walked in silence through the hall; which, Alice thought to herself, turned out to be a good idea when they reached a flight of stairs that they would have fallen down if they hadn’t had their wands to light their way.

After twenty minutes Alice was ready to admit to Draco that he had been right and it didn’t look like the corridor was ever going to come to an end, when they reached a dark wooden door with a rusted handle that looked like it would crumble as soon as anyone touched it. Alice glanced over at Draco, silently questioning whether she should open it or not. 

Draco shrugged his shoulders. “We’ve come all this way,” he whispered, not wanting to announce their presence to anyone who might be on the other side of the door. “We might as well see what it’s led to.”

Alice nodded her head in agreement and reached out a hand, not liking how much it was shaking. To her surprise, the door handle felt shiny and clean, even though it looked dirty and old, and turned as easily as it would have had it been newly installed. As soon as the door was open, the sound of laughter and shrieks of delight sounded, and she glanced over at Draco in confusion. “Can you smell… sugar?” Draco whispered, taking a step closer to the door and smelling the air.

“Yeah,” Alice answered, taking a deep breath and smelling, what seemed like freshly made Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans. “Where are we?” she added, moving to open the door further.

Before she could, Draco hissed, “Wait!” and pulled her back a little, letting the door close once more. “I think I know where we are,” he whispered, looking at the door and back down the corridor they’d just come from. “There’s only one place I can think of near Hogwarts that makes Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, and it’s in Hogsmeade.”

Alice’s eyes widened in surprise. “That is so cool!” she gushed, immediately jumping to the conclusion that they had located a secret passageway out of the castle and into Hogsmeade. “We don’t need permission slips to go with Owen now!”

Draco scoffed and shook his head. “It figures that’s all you can think about, Harkness,” he muttered. “Black could still be nearby; that hasn’t changed.”

His words brought reality crashing down on Alice and she bit her lip in thought, before her eyes lit up happily. “I forgot I had this,” she murmured, reaching into the pocket of her robe and pulling out the small velvet bag that held the key her great-uncle had given her during their first year. “I didn’t want to use it when the Doctor was around, since it doesn’t work with him,” she explained, tipping the key out of the bag into the palm of her hand.

Grey eyes glanced down at the key, before looking up and meeting Alice’s gaze. “Well, that works for you, but there are two of us without permission slips,” he reminded her, watching as her face fell in realisation.

“Damn.” Alice scowled and glanced down at the key. “It might still work if we’re both holding the key?” she suggested.

Draco rolled his eyes. “How do you suggest we do that; you hold the top and I hold the bottom?” Alice shrugged her shoulders. “That’ll work until one of us accidentally loses grip or something, and then we’ll get caught.”

The glare she threw at him could have frozen water, but the blond wasn’t affected, having being on the receiving end many times in the three years they’d been friends. “We’re going to have to hold hands,” she said, hoping that her cheeks didn’t look as hot as they suddenly felt. She didn’t even know why she was embarrassed to suggest holding hands with her best friend; it wasn’t like it meant anything, after all. 

“If we get caught, Harkness,” Draco said, slowly lifting his hand and holding it out to her. “I will kill you.”

Once their hands were both over the key (which she secured against her palm with a temporary sticking charm), Alice reached out and pushed open the door fully, revealing what looked like the busiest sweetshop in the world. “Careful you don’t hit anyone or anything on the way out,” she advised under her breath as they headed from the semi-secluded little doorway into Honeydukes – if the signage on the window was anything to go by.

Avoiding people, Alice and Draco very quickly learned, was a lot harder than they had initially thought when they couldn’t let go of each other’s hands. They almost bumped into Seamus and Lee Jordan twice on their way to the door, which thankfully opened just as they got to it. 

“Remind me not to do that again,” Draco muttered once they were out in the open, but Alice wasn’t listening. She was too busy looking around her in awe at the street around them. 

When she had first heard about Hogsmeade, Alice had imagined it to look like a mixture between Diagon Alley and the old-world Shambles of York where her dad had taken her during the summer to visit Remus who had been working in the Northern city. Looking around at Hogsmeade, she could see that she hadn’t been that wrong. 

“Oi!” a familiar voice shouted from behind them, making them both jump in surprise. They turned around to see Owen heading in their direction with a confused look on his face. “What are you doing here?” he asked as he approached and Alice lifted her free hand, shushing him as best as she could. “Are you holding hands?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“If you don’t want us to get caught, shut up, Harper,” Draco instructed, looking around them to make sure that no-one was around to see Owen seemingly talking to himself. “And we’re holding hands because Harkness only has one damn key.”

Owen frowned deeply and opened his mouth to ask more questions, before closing it with a snap and shaking his head. “We should probably go somewhere where no-one will notice that I’m talking to myself,” he finally whispered, glancing around them to make sure they hadn’t already been spotted.

Draco nodded in agreement. “Can it be somewhere inside? It’s freezing!” 

Alice scoffed and rolled her eyes. “It’s not that cold,” she muttered, pulling him after her as Owen led them down the street, claiming to know somewhere they could go.

TBC


	11. Conversation, Overheard

**Chapter 11: Conversation, Overheard**

Together, they decided that it was best if they went into the Three Broomsticks Pub, where they could seclude themselves in a corner and not be seen by many people. As Draco and Alice settled into a corner booth that, luckily was hidden behind a frosted glass partition, Owen went to get them drinks. “Do you think it’s safe to let go of the key yet?” Alice whispered, glancing around them and worrying her lip nervously. She couldn’t see anyone nearby, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t be seen.

“Yes,” Draco answered immediately, releasing his hold and rubbing his hands together. “Your hands are so cold,” he muttered, blowing hot air on them in an attempt to warm them up.

Alice rolled her eyes. “Cold hands, warm heart,” she retorted, reversing the sticking charm on the key and placing it on the table; she made sure to keep it in easy reach, just in case. “Why did you only get two?” she asked as Owen returned to the table carrying two tankards of hot butterbeer.

Owen slid one of the tankards towards his friends, before he slid into the booth opposite. “I figured if anyone sees me sitting on my own, I'll be able to explain one extra glass better than two. Everyone knows we do almost everything together,” he pointed out, earning him nods of understanding from his friends.

They sat in silence as they drank their butterbeers, until they heard footsteps approach the booth and Alice started, fingers reaching for the key immediately. “This table, Tish?” Rose’s voice said from behind the frosted glass and Alice felt dread fill her even more; if they were caught by Rose, there wasn’t a way the Doctor wouldn’t find out.

“No,” the barmaid, Tish, replied. “The one on the right,” she added and Alice slowly expelled the breath she had been holding, exchanged relieved looks with her friends. “What brings you all the way up here, Minister?” Tish questioned.

There was silence for a moment and Alice wondered if Saxon was going to actually answer her question before he wearily said, “Sirius Black, unfortunately. I presume you heard that he was seen not that far away from here and is generally presumed to be heading in this direction?”

A sound of agreement followed and Tish said, “Why is he heading for Hogwarts, though?” she asked. “Surely he’s not stupid enough to think that the school wouldn’t be heavily guarded. There are bloody Dementors everywhere; they’ve searched my pub twice looking for him!”

When Saxon spoke, he sounded uncomfortable at being the focus of her annoyance. “I don’t like them any more than you do, Tish. But until Black’s caught, there’s really nothing that can be done about them. I’ve just come from a meeting with some of them. They’re livid that the Doctor won’t let them onto the castle grounds.”

“Good!” Rose exclaimed, making the trio of friends jump in surprise. “Trying to teach with them floating around would be impossible!”

There was silence for a moment before they heard the sound of a tankard being placed down on the table. “I remember him, you know,” Tish said softly. “He used to come here and try to bribe me into serving him alcohol. Of all the people to go over to the Dark Lord…” She trailed off for a moment and Alice imagined that she was shaking her head. “All those poor people he killed,” she whispered sadly.

“None of us expected him to,” Rose agreed sadly.

There was a scrape of a chair on the floor before Saxon added, “You don’t know the half of it, Tish. Most people don’t know the worst of what he actually did.”

Tish scoffed. “What’s worse than killing thirteen people in broad daylight with magic?” she demanded.

“Minister,” Rose began, “I don’t think this is the place to talk about this,” she cautioned.

Alice, Draco and Owen shared confused glances; each of them silently wondering what could be so bad that they didn’t want to talk about it in public. “There’s no-one around here, Professor,” Saxon argued. “You said you remember Black from when he was at school, Tish? Do you remember who he was dating during their sixth year?”

A chuckle sounded from Tish. “Of course,” she replied, the tone of her voice making it obvious that Saxon was stupid to suggest that she didn’t remember. “The pretty Ravenclaw student, but they broke up the following year, didn’t they?”

“Yes, they did,” Rose agreed, sounding like she wanted to be having another conversation but the one she was currently in the middle of.

Saxon either couldn’t tell that Rose didn’t want to continue the conversation, or didn’t care, because he said, “The relationship she was having during their seventh year only lasted two years. Long enough for her to get pregnant, before she went back to Black.”

As she listened, Alice felt dread growing inside of her at their words. A Ravenclaw who had a short relationship and ended up pregnant, before they broke up; things were starting to head in a direction she wasn’t comfortable with.

“When she went into hiding, no-one knew that Black was already in league with You-Know-Who,” Saxon continued, a note of regret obvious in his voice. “Black was the only one who knew where Lucia and baby Alice were. He’s the only one who could have told the Dark Lord.”

Thankfully Alice’s sharp intake of breath was masked by Tish’s and the Slytherin student found that she couldn’t hear anything anymore over the rushing of blood in her ears. Her mother and Sirius Black had been going out with each other before and after Lucia’s relationship with Jack. Something inside of Alice couldn’t believe what she heard, but somehow it made sense in a strange way; she’d felt like Jack and Ianto hadn’t told her the entire truth during the summer, but to leave out that her mother’s murderer was her boyfriend was mind-blowing.

“Are you okay?” Draco asked, breaking through Alice’s whirlwind of thought and she looked around wildly to make sure that he hadn’t given away their presence. “It’s okay; they’ve gone,” he added, knowing what she was looking for.

At his words, Alice visibly relaxed and slumped back against the cushions of the booth they were sat in. She could literally feel her mind reeling and it was starting to give her a headache, but she couldn’t stop it. “Did you know?” Owen questioned softly from the other side of the table.

Alice shook her head. “Dad and Professor Jones told me that Black was the only person who knew where mum and I were, but they never said anything about them going out. Hang on…” She murmured, something from their first year occurring to her. “When I went to see Donna back in first year, I asked her how Ianto and my dad knew each other. She didn’t tell me they were going out, but she mentioned that they were best friends until their seventh year, when they barely spoke to each other.”

“Well, I’m not surprised they didn’t speak,” Draco muttered. “If your mum and dad were already going out, I wouldn’t want anything to do with him if I were Professor Jones.” 

He said something else, but Alice wasn’t listening anymore. She was too busy trying to work out why her dad hadn’t told her truth; didn’t he think that she’d want to know more about her mother?

~

TBC


	12. Rowan Potion

**Chapter 12: Rowan Potion**

In the weeks and months following Christmas, Alice was more than tempted to write to Jack and ask him about her mum and Black, but every time she got close to writing the letter, she talked herself out of it. It was probably childish and petty of her, but she wanted to ask him to his face when she saw him at the beginning of the summer to make sure that she got a truthful answer and he didn’t have any time to think of a decent lie.

The last Friday in April was warm and bright, making everyone excited to finish classes so they could enjoy the sunshine while it lasted since they all knew it wouldn’t be long before the rain returned. 

Alice, Draco and Owen were in high spirits as they headed to their final class of the day – Defence Against the Dark Arts. Alice couldn’t remember what they were laughing about as they entered together. She knew that Draco had said something that likely shouldn’t have been funny, and she had suddenly burst out laughing, which had sparked a laughing fit from her friends as well. Privately, she suspected that someone had put something in her drink.

That feeling of giddiness vanished almost immediately however, when she saw Professor Hart standing where Remus should have been. He was watching them with a disgusted expression on his face, which Alice knew she was repaying him in kind.

“Quiet down you three and take your seats before I take points,” Hart snapped, not looking away from the trio of friends. Owen and Draco quietened down and quickly made their way over to their seats. Alice didn’t move from where she had been standing by the door and Hart’s eyes narrowed impatiently. “Are you deaf, Harkness?” he questioned, stepping away from the desk and advancing on the teenager. “I said, take your seat.”

Alice remained where she was and demanded, “Where’s Professor Lupin?”

Hart huffed in annoyance as he reached her and placed his hands on his hips. “Not that it’s any concern of yours, but Lupin had a rough night and has asked me to fill in for him today. Now,” he said, standing up to his full height and towering over Alice, “take your seat.”

The dark haired girl’s eyes narrowed with hatred and she opened her mouth to argue some more. Before she could say a word, Draco had jumped out of his seat, grabbed her hand and pulled her into the empty chair next to her. “Just sit down and shut up,” he whispered, rolling his eyes as he pulled his textbook from his bag.

“Yes, Miss Harkness,” Hart practically purred, closing the door firmly and marching to the front of the classroom. “I would listen to Mr Malfoy. Who knows, you might actually learn something for once.” He surveyed the class, seemingly oblivious of the fact that his godson was pinning Alice’s arm to the desk to make sure she remained in her seat and didn’t do something she’d likely regret. “Now,” he continued, “I’ve reviewed the notes left by Professor Lupin and I’ll be surprised if any of you will be able to pass your end of year exams.” He picked up a sheet of parchment from the desk, reviewed it and then shook his head with a look of contempt on his face. “The things you’ve learnt about this year are for first years.”

Alice snorted with laughter and blurted out, “He’s still the best teacher we’ve had!” before Draco could stop her.

Hart turned to face her, his face red with fury. “That’s not exactly difficult to accomplish when you consider who his predecessors were,” he muttered through clenched teeth, turning his back on Alice and stalking over to the blackboard.

“Who said I was talking about Defence teachers?” Alice scoffed, with a roll of her eyes.

Her words had an immediate effect on the professor, who spun around and glared at her furiously. “Five points from Slytherin, Miss Harkness,” he snapped, which made the other Slytherins in the room gape at him; their head of house had never taken points from his own house. “Don’t make me take more.” He paused, an eyebrow raised in a silent challenge to see if she would push him further.

Beside her, Draco curled his fingers even tighter around her arm, digging his short nails into her skin through her jumper. “Leave it, Alice,” he hissed under his breath. The sound of his voice seemed to break Alice out her anger filled daze and she nodded her head, taking several deep breaths to calm herself down – much to Hart’s irritation.

“Now,” Hart said, turning back to the blackboard and pulling out his wand. “Because of Professor Lupin’s abysmal ability to teach you anything you need to know, you’re going to be brewing a Rowan potion for me,” he informed them, flicking his wrist and writing the name of the potion at the top of the board.

At his words, Alice sat upright, horror flooding through her as a nauseous feeling settled in her stomach. To her right, Tosh Sato – a Ravenclaw – thrust her hand into the air, waiting for Hart to notice her with a confused look on her face.

“Yes, Miss Sato?” Hart asked without turning around from the board.

Tosh shuffled nervously in her seat and pushed her glasses up her nose, before she spoke timidly, “Sir, shouldn’t we be learning spells instead of potions?” There was a murmur of agreement following her words that showed she wasn’t the only one who thought that potions had no place in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Hart’s back went rigid at her words and he set his wand down, before slowly turning to face them. “Miss Sato,” he began, his voice so low and dangerous that even Alice knew it would be a bad idea to argue with him. “Am I, or am I not the professor in this classroom?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest.

The young Ravenclaw swallowed nervously. “Yes, Sir, but…” she stammered.

“So, when I say that you’re going to brew a potion that will prove useful should you ever need to defend yourself against a specific creature, you will know what to do,” Hart stated harshly, cutting Tosh off and bringing tears to her eyes. “Now, if no-one else has any other objections to my teaching topics, who can tell me what a Rowan potion does?” he asked, his eyes landing on Alice expectantly. The corners of his mouth twitched in a smirk when she clamped her jaw closed, biting her tongue so she didn’t lash out at him.

Not one single student stirred – not even Tosh - and Hart clicked his tongue in annoyance, not shifting his gaze from Alice. “Any of you even care to hazard a guess?” Again, they didn’t move and Hart’s eyes slid over to Draco. “Mr Malfoy?” he questioned, fully expecting his godson to suggest something intelligent.

The young blond shook his head, throwing an apologetic look at his head of house. “No, Sir,” he murmured, looking down at the desk in embarrassment. It was the first time he hadn’t known the answer to a question Hart had asked him.

“Pity,” Hart sighed. He smiled sinisterly and turned his gaze back to Alice. “Miss Harkness, any ideas?”

Alice’s eyes narrowed with hatred, but she didn’t rise to the bait that Hart was clearly offering to her. “No, Sir,” she whispered, not fully managing to hide her insolence.

Their gazes locked for a long moment, before Hart turned away and regarded the rest of the class. “A Rowan potion is the most effective way to kill a vampire. A killing curse will only work when the vampire has already been weakened significantly by another method such as not feeding or excessive blood loss.” When no one made any move to write that part of information down, he growled and snapped, “Are you all going to remember that for your end of year exams?”

Immediately, there was a flurry of activity as people made to write his words down. Alice didn’t want to do as she was told – the last thing she wanted was to brew a potion that could kill her – but she didn’t trust Hart not to say something about what she really was in front of everyone. Even if she didn’t know how he had found out the truth in the first place; as far as Alice had been aware, only the Doctor, Rose and Ianto knew the truth about her and Jack (not including Remus, of course).

Slowly, she reached out and picked up her quill, writing the title of the potion on the top of the page – she didn’t need to know anything else about what it did. Hart scowled when he saw that she had complied with his instructions and picking up his wand again. Another flick of the wand followed and the ingredients and instructions for the potion began appearing on the board behind Hart. 

“You have thirty minutes to brew the potion,” he informed them, sitting in Remus’ chair. “And I expect you to work in silence,” he added just as a small murmur of chatter was brewing amongst the students.

~

As soon as classes finished for the day, Ianto headed to his office with the intention in pouring himself a large glass of firewhiskey as he marked the homework that had just been handed in by the fourth years. A large number of the students had gone outside to enjoy what was left of the sunshine, but Ianto was more than happy to stay inside the castle and leave patrolling the grounds to the rest of the staff. It was his evening off and, while he would have normally liked to spend the evening with Jack, the other man had been complaining that he was nowhere near meeting his approaching deadline. Ianto, not wanting to listen to Jack complaining that he had too much work to do, had ordered his boyfriend to stay at home and write as much as he needed to make sure he made the deadline. Jack’s protests that writing didn’t work like that had fell on deaf ears.

The Charms professor had just poured the firewhiskey and was about to take a sip, when the door to his office burst open and he jumped as though he had been caught doing something he shouldn’t. He looked up in irritation and was about to let loose a tirade on whoever had intruded on him, when he saw Alice cross the room, leaving the door open as she threw herself face down on the couch that was pressed against the far wall of his office. 

“Er…” he hesitated, getting to his feet and moving around his desk. “Not that I mind you being comfortable enough to come in here, but…” He moved to the door and closed it softly, before turning back around to face her. “I…” Ianto trailed off when he realised Alice was sobbing into a dark green cushion. “Alice?” he whispered, kneeling next to the couch and placing a hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” he asked softly.

“I hate him!” she exclaimed, her voice muffled by the cushions her face was buried in.

Ianto frowned deeply. “Who? Owen? Draco?” he questioned, trying to work out what her friends could have done to upset her as bad as this.

Alice lifted her head and shook her head. “No. Hart,” she stated, running the backs of her hands over her cheeks to dry her tears.

Ianto sighed heavily. “What has he done now?” he asked, wishing Hart would get over the grudge he was holding against Alice already.

She pushed herself into a sitting position and leant back against the couch. “We had him for Defence this afternoon,” she explained, hugging the cushion tightly to her chest. “He doesn’t like it, but the Doctor is making Uncle Remus take…” She trailed off, realising that she might be telling secrets that weren’t hers to tell.

“His Wolfsbane potion while he’s at the school,” Ianto finished for her with a smile, knowing what she was struggling with. He had known about Remus being a werewolf since they had been teenagers.

Alice smiled and nodded her head. “He always feels like he’s getting a really bad cold the day before and the day of a full moon,” she explained, showing just how big a part of her life the Defence teacher was. “Hart was covering his class and… He made us brew a Rowan potion,” she finally whispered.

Ianto’s eyes widened in surprise and he exclaimed, “What?” as he jumped to his feet. “Did he say anything about…?” he pressed, unable to keep the panic out of his voice. He knew exactly what that potion would do, having seen the effects of it first hand as a teenager.

The Slytherin shook her head and reached up, grabbing his hand and pulling him back onto the couch. “He only told us what it does,” she assured the professor. “I couldn’t refuse to make it; I don’t know what he would have done if I had. It wouldn’t surprise me if he told everyone what I am,” she added, her eyes narrowing angrily as she thought about what Hart would have likely done.

“Did anyone…” Ianto swallowed thickly as he choked on the words as they got stuck in his throat. He cleared his throat and tried again, “Did anyone manage to brew it correctly?” 

“No,” she stated and Ianto let out a sigh of relief. “But Sato came very close; too close,” she whispered, biting her lower lip in fear.

Ianto hesitated, before reaching out and wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders, squeezing softly. “We need to tell J,” he said softly.

Alice stared at him in horror and she reached out, grabbing his hand and stopping him from getting up. “No!” she exclaimed. “Please, you can’t tell him,” she begged, looking up at him with wide blue eyes. 

Despite knowing that it wasn’t the best thing to do, Ianto looked into her eyes and sighed when he saw that she was giving him the patented Harkness-Puppy-Dog eyes. “Alice…” he whispered, trying to resist even though he had never managed it before; with either her or Jack.

“You know what my dad’s like!” Alice pointed out. “He hates Hart to start with, the last thing he needs is more ammunition to rip his throat out. Please,” she added, pouting for extra affect.

The Professor sighed and nodded his head slowly, running his hand through his hair as he tried to think of what they could. “Fine,” he reluctantly agreed. “I won’t tell your father.” Alice breathed a sigh of relief and flashed him a thankful smile. “But someone needs to know,” he continued, wiping the smile from her face immediately. “If anyone realises what that potion would do to you…” He shook his head as a shudder ran through him at the thought. “Rowan potions are dangerous, Alice; even if they’re not brewed correctly. I think that, as Headmaster…”

“You’re going to tell the _Doctor_?” Alice shrieked.

Ianto winced at the volume of her voice, and nodded his head firmly. “I know you’d rather I didn’t tell either of them, but what John’s trying to do – whatever that may be – is dangerous and he needs to be told that Rowan potions aren’t suitable for brewing by third years. Especially when he knows that there’s a vampire in that year.”

Alice frowned a little at his words. “I was wondering about that earlier,” she murmured. “How does he know what I am? I thought you, the Doctor, Rose and Remus were the only ones who knew.”

“None of the other teachers know. John…” Ianto sighed and shook his head. “John didn’t know until we were in our fifth year. He and your dad got into a fight and, I think, that your dad let his control slip long enough for John to notice. I would assume he’s worked out that, logically, there was no way you couldn’t have inherited J’s genes. He hasn’t mentioned anything about you being a vampire while you’ve been here; I imagine that the Doctor had sworn him to secrecy,” he mused. “John doesn’t do subtle very well. If he was planning on telling anyone the truth, it would have been spread around the entire school by now.” 

Alice scowled. “Why do you think he made us brew the potion today, if he doesn’t do subtle?”

Ianto shrugged his shoulders. “I would imagine that he was hoping someone would make the connection between the mention of vampires and you. Although, how they would come to that conclusion from a potion, I have no idea.” He shook his head. “But that’s exactly why I need to tell the Headmaster. If people do somehow manage to figure it out, you’re going to be in danger, Alice.”

“Can’t you just talk to Hart instead?” Alice begged, tears shining in the corners of her eyes. “I know you can get him to change his mind about things; I saw you do it that day with the Rememberall, back in first year.”

The Charms professor scoffed and shifted uncomfortably; he had hoped that she hadn’t realised he had been flirting with John. “This is different,” he insisted. “That was harmless flirting to get the daughter of my ex-boyfriend out of trouble, not a matter of life and death. We’re talking about a potion that could kill you, Alice.” He paused, trying to decide what was the best thing to. “I either tell your dad, or the Doctor,” he offered when he made a decision. “I know which I’d prefer, but the choice is yours.”

Alice glared at him for a long moment, before sighing heavily, knowing that she was going to win the argument. “Fine,” she muttered through gritted teeth. “Don't tell my dad,” she added reluctantly.

Ianto nodded his head. “I’ll tell the Doctor after supper when he returns from his meeting with the Minister,” he told her. “I won’t breathe a word to J.”

Despite her earlier irritation at not getting her own way – a side effect of being an only child, she presumed - Alice smiled and found herself leaning forward to hug Ianto, before she hesitated and sat back again. “Thank you,” she whispered gratefully.

At her reluctance to hug him, Ianto bit back a sigh – he had hoped that she would be more comfortable with him now – and returned her smile with one of his own. “You’d best get going before I change my mind,” he instructed, glancing at the clock on the wall and seeing that it was almost time for tea; so much for enjoying his firewhiskey before then. 

Alice grinned and got to her feet, smoothing down her hair, before heading across the room. At the door, she paused with her hand on the handle and glanced back at the professor who was still sitting on the couch. “Thank you… Ianto,” she murmured, turning the handle and pulling the door open, leaving the room before Ianto had even realised what had been said.

As the door closed behind her, Ianto leant back against the cushions of the couch and breathed deeply, trying to calm the part of him that was practically giddy over Alice calling him by his given name for the first time. He knew he didn’t have time to think about what that meant for the relationship he had with his boyfriend’s daughter. He had made a promise that he had no intention in keeping, and that was bothering him more than it ever had in the past. 

Inside, he knew that he had to tell Jack what Hart was up to; if the other wizard ever found that Ianto had kept something so important from him… Ianto wasn’t sure what Jack would do, but he knew that it would likely be the end of their relationship for good. But, on the other hand, if Alice found out that he had broken his promise, she would never forgive him and would hate him forever.

With a frustrated groan, he ran his hand over his face. “It’s for her own good,” he muttered, trying to convince himself that he was doing the right thing. “J needs to know,” he added, pushing himself off of the couch and heading over to his desk.

As he slouched down into the seat, doubts began to creep back into his mind, but he pushed them aside, mentally telling himself that he was doing the right thing. His subconscious also added that he was a Slytherin and needed to get it together before the Doctor made him an honorary Hufflepuff; a thought which made him frown in irritation at himself. 

Before he could talk himself out it, he reached for a piece of parchment and glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room. He had about half an hour before the meal was served, which was plenty of time to write the letter and sent it to Jack with one of the school’s owls; after all, what Alice didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

_J, Before you read the rest of this letter, promise me you won’t overreact and you won’t come to the school…_

TBC


	13. Dinner and a Conversation

**Chapter 13: Dinner and a Conversation**

Ianto walked into the Great Hall a short while later with butterflies in his stomach and his heart pounding in his chest. He remembered meeting the headmaster for the first time after he and Jack had been caught vandalising the Potions classroom with glow in the dark muggle paint that a fellow student, Darrin Bradley, had smuggled into the school. He had been terrified then, and now at thirty-three, that same feeling was back with a vengeance.

Alice was sitting on her own at the Slytherin table and watching the door carefully as she waited for her friends. When she saw Ianto, she offered him a small smile, which he returned in kind as he continued down the length of the hall. As he approached the teacher’s table, he noticed that the seat in the centre was empty and frowned deeply. “Is the Doctor still not back?” he asked softly, sliding into the empty seat next to Remus.

Remus shook his head and shook a spoonful of peas onto his plate. “I saw him before he went and he said that he probably wouldn’t be back until just before curfew,” the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor answered. Ianto scowled and looked down the table at Hart who was eating his meal and completely oblivious to the fact that he was being watched. “Is there something wrong?” Remus asked softly, noticing that the normally talkative Welshman seemed distracted.

Ianto blinked and pulled his gaze away from his colleague. “No,” he lied, before scowling and glancing at the Slytherin table. Alice had now been joined by her friends and was deeply engrossed in conversation with him. “Actually,” he corrected himself, turning back to Remus who was looking more and more concerned as he waited for Ianto’s explanation. “Alice came to see me after classes this afternoon,” he began, lowering his voice just in case; even though it looked like Alice wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings, Ianto knew exactly how well her hearing was and he didn’t want her overhearing his conversation. 

The confused look on Remus’ face was replaced with a look of surprise, quickly followed by happiness. “Really?” he breathed and Ianto nodded his head. “Well, that’s good, isn’t it?” he asked, frowning a little as he tried to think why that would bother Ianto so much. “You said that you’ve been wanting to get her to like you since she started school.”

Ianto sighed and ran a hand over the back of his neck. “I know. It’s just… She told me that John was teaching your third year Defence class how to brew a Rowan potion,” he informed the slightly older man.

“What?” Remus hissed, his eyes widening in horror at his words. “An actual Rowan potion?” Ianto nodded his head. “Did anyone manage it?” he asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer. Ianto was quick to assure Remus that no-one had been fully successful and the other man sighed with relief. “It’s a good job as well,” Remus added, glaring darkly at the potions professor. “Did he learn nothing from what happened when we were in fifth year?”

Ianto shrugged his shoulders. “I was actually starting to wonder if that was where he got the inspiration from,” he mused. “You remember what that potion did to J, and Hawkins didn’t even manage to brew it properly. He was just lucky he was only a student and that J survived; getting expelled was nothing compared to what would have happened if he’d brewed that potion as an adult. At the very least, John could…”

“Lose his job,” Remus finished for him, nodding in agreement. “If something bad happened to a student because of that potion… He’d be looking at a stint in Azkaban, for sure.”

“Exactly.” Ianto hesitated again, before admitting, “Alice didn’t want me to tell anyone.” 

Remus scoffed and stabbed a roast potato with his fork. “Somehow, I can’t see you agreeing to that.”

Ianto grinned at him. “We agreed that the Doctor had to know so he could make sure that John didn’t do something like this in the future.”

The other teacher raised a questioning eyebrow as he studied his friend. “Somehow I think there’s more to this than you’re telling me,” he observed.

A flush of embarrassment at being caught crept across Ianto’s cheeks and he grinned sheepishly at the other man. “I told her I wouldn’t tell J,” he confessed bashfully.

Remus let out a knowing chuckle. “Why do I have a feeling that was a lie?” 

“Because I’m a Slytherin?” Ianto suggested, rolling his eyes and feeling a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. “I know it’s not the best way to build up trust; but if J somehow finds out about what John tried to do and that I knew, that’s not going to be good for our relationship. I had to make a choice.”

Remus smiled sympathetically and reached out, patting his colleague on the arm. “I wouldn’t worry about the trust issue,” he whispered. “It looks like she already trusts you quite a bit.”

“How do you work that out?” Ianto asked, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice and glancing at the Slytherin table to make sure that Alice’s attention was still on her friends.

“A few months ago, Alice would have gone to Daddy’s best friend about John,” Remus told him. “You said it yourself, she wasn’t exactly comfortable with you at the beginning of the year. It’s unlikely that she would have thought to tell you. The fact that she went to you instead of me makes it obvious that she trusts you more than you thought.”

As the other man’s words sank in, Ianto couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. “That doesn’t bother you, does it?” he asked nervously. He knew how close Remus was to Alice and didn’t want his friend to feel like he was taking something away from him.

Remus shook his head with a knowing smile on his face. “Of course not,” he assured the other wizard. “You have no idea how long I’ve been trying to get Jack back in contact with you. He’s so stubborn when he wants to be,” he added with a despairing sigh.

Ianto glanced at Remus out of the corner of his eye for a moment, before finally deciding to ask the question that had been on his mind all year. “Have you and he ever…?”

He didn’t finish the sentence, but Remus didn’t need him to; he knew exactly what the other man was trying to ask him. He had been wondering how long it would be before the question of his and Jack’s relationship came up; in truth, he was surprised the question hadn’t come up before. “Would that be a problem?” he asked warily, not wanting to confess if it meant that he would ruin his friendship with Ianto.

“No,” Ianto replied with a shake of his head. He was telling the truth; he really didn’t care who Jack had slept with during their decade long break-up. Ianto knew it would be hypocritical of him to judge, considering whom he had spent five years in an on-off relationship with. 

Remus smiled with relief. “Then yes. But it was never anything more than comfort for either of us; and nothing has happened since you came back into the picture, so it’s a moot point.”

They shared a grin and continued their meal in comfortable silence, with Remus feeling relieved that Ianto wasn’t bothered by his and Jack’s past relationship, and Ianto feeling less nervous now that he had told someone what Hart had done.

~

Further down the hall at the Slytherin table, Alice was sitting with Draco and Owen, completely oblivious to what being discussed between Remus and Ianto. 

“Where did you disappear to after Potions?” Owen asked, before shaking his head and correcting himself. “Defence.”

“I needed to ask Professor Jones something,” she answered, taking a bite of her mashed potatoes. “Why? Did you miss me?” Alice added with a grin.

Draco scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Don’t be stupid, Harkness,” he muttered, reaching into the pocket of his robes. “Professor Noble asked me to give you this when we were heading back inside earlier,” he said, holding an envelope out to her across the table.

Alice wiped her hands on a napkin and took the envelope from her friend, flicking it open and pulling Donna’s letter out. When she didn’t immediately speak, Owen glared at her and said, “Feel free to tell us any minute!”

The female Slytherin glared at him, before handing Owen the letter. “Buckbeak’s going to be executed tonight,” she whispered, biting her lip as an urge to cry overwhelmed her. She wasn’t too bothered about the Hippogriff – she wasn’t a huge fan – but she knew Donna really liked the creature and felt bad for her.

“What?” Draco hissed, snatching the letter from Owen and reading it with wide eyes. “Father never said anything about wanting the thing executed,” he muttered, looking up at Alice with a guilty expression on his face. “I swear, I would never…”

Alice shook her head and reached across the table, placing a hand on his arm to comfort him. “It’s not your fault,” she reminded him. Her eyes flickered to Donna’s empty seat at the teacher’s table. “I’m going to see her after tea,” she decided, knowing that she wasn’t going to let her father’s friend go through Buckbeak’s execution on her own.

Owen and Draco shared quick glances before they both swore that they would be with her as well. Draco added that it was the least he could do considering he was, in part, responsible for what was happening.

~

TBC


	14. The Return Of The Doctor

**Chapter 14: The Return of The Doctor**

The sun was beginning to set below the horizon when the Doctor returned to the castle after his visit with the Minister of Magic. He had been hoping to get back in time to eat with the rest of the school but, as always, his meeting had run over and he’d been late getting back to the castle, forcing him to dine alone in his office.

He stepped out onto his balcony and smiled to himself as he looked down at his school. He had been teaching for longer than he cared to admit (even to himself), but the beauty of the castle he had called home for so long never failed to make him smile or take his breath away. That smile turned into a frown when his brown eyes landed on an unexpected visitor who was heading towards the castle. 

Quickly, he turned on his heel and headed through the building, taking advantage of the many secret passages few knew about as he tried to work out who the stranger was. With Dementors on every entrance to the grounds it was almost impossible that someone should be able to arrive unannounced, but clearly that wasn’t the case and he needed to find out how that had happened. 

The Doctor reached the castle door as the intruder reached the bottom of the stairs and his frown turned into a scowl when he recognised the person heading closer to him. 

Sensing that he was no longer alone, Jack looked up and greeted the headmaster with a nod of his head. “Evenin’,” he murmured, continuing up the stairs with no intention of stopping.

“How did you get past the Dementors?” the Doctor asked, bypassing any sort of welcome. A shrug of the shoulders was all he got in response and he growled at the back of his throat; sometimes he was certain that Jack purposely tried to push as many buttons as he could to see what the headmaster would do. “I presume this isn’t a social visit,” he said, changing the subject since Jack was clearly not planning on telling him the truth.

Jack finally stopped when he came to the top of the stairs. “I was in the area and thought I’d drop by, see how Alice is doing. Since she stayed here for Christmas, I haven’t seen her since last summer, so we’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” he lied, not even bothering to make the words he was speaking sound convincing. 

The Doctor remained silent, studying the other wizard for a long moment as he tried to determine the real reason behind Jack’s sudden appearance at the castle. “I’m not having another vampire in this castle while there are still students here, Jack,” he stated, when he couldn’t think of anything.

The younger wizard raised an eyebrow at the Doctor’s words. “I don’t see how me being in the castle is no different from having a werewolf teach the students,” he said softly. He hated himself for bringing Remus into the impending argument he would likely have, but right then he was only concerned with Alice’s wellbeing. 

“Werewolves are different to vampires, Jack, and you know it,” the Doctor replied, with more patience than he thought he had. Even though he could keep his temper when talking to students and other members of staff, when he found himself face to face with the wizard he had raised, Jack somehow managed to bring the bad-tempered man in him; a side effect of them being so similar, he presumed – even though Jack would swear that he was nothing like the older man. “The wolf can be placated easy enough with Wolfsbane. The only thing that will satisfy a vampire’s thirst is…”

“Blood,” Jack finished for him with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t you think I know that?” he growled out. “I’m hardly going to walk around the school attacking students. Give me a little bit of credit.”

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed slightly at Jack’s words. “I can’t let you in, Jack. I’m already putting my neck on the line – if you’ll pardon the pun – by letting Alice attend; if the school board found out the truth…”

Jack scoffed and shook his head. “Bollocks. Alice is every bit as magical as every other student in the school,” he snapped. “Stop acting like you have a choice in who gets chosen to come here. Students have always been magically selected, all you and Rose do is send the letter out; you’ve got no control over who gets in – be them Muggle-born, pureblood, werewolf or vampire. Or have you forgotten that I used to ‘help’ Rose with the letters when I was a kid?” he added, raising a taunting eyebrow.

When the Doctor didn’t respond, Jack grinned smugly, knowing that he had won _that_ argument, and folded his arms across his chest. “Do I need to remind you that I didn’t attack a single person when I was younger?” he continued. “I’ve lived in this castle since I was two years old. I’ve been around _humans_ constantly all my life and know I can control myself. Even when I was a student, I never lost control and attacked anyone.” He paused and took a step closer to the Doctor. “Now let me in!” he instructed firmly, his voice echoing in the archway.

The Doctor didn’t move and he shook his head. “No,” he said firmly. “This isn’t your home anymore, and hasn’t been for a long time now. If you enter without my permission you’re trespassing, and I will be well within my rights to have you removed.”

Jack glared at him, but didn’t speak as he tried to duck past the other man, only to find himself with a wand pressed to his throat far quicker than Jack had thought the Doctor was capable of moving. 

“Don’t move another inch,” the headmaster ordered, his eyes shining furiously and his grip tight on his wand. 

Silver eyes flickered down to the wand at his throat, before Jack laughed loud. “You know you can’t kill me,” he whispered, taunting the Doctor and trying to enter the castle again, only to find that his path was blocked again. “That’s the one thing wizards got right about us; we’re essentially immortal, remember?” he purred.

“I remember,” the Doctor assured him. “But I’m not planning on killing you. I can, however, use magic to detain you until you’ve seen reason – regardless of how long that takes,” he added, tightening his grip on the wand and shifting on the spot. “Like you said; you can’t die, but I can keep you detained for eternity if I wish.”

The younger man’s eyes narrowed as he felt his vampire side rise to the surface in response to being threatened. Even though the rational part of him was certain that the Doctor wouldn’t hurt him, the predator inside him was alert and ready to attack if threatened further. “Don’t you think being this close to a vampire’s mouth is dangerous?” he whispered, running his tongue over teeth which were now fanged. “I could bite you and drain your blood in the blink of an eye, and there’s nothing you would be able to do to stop me,” he added, lifting his eyes and meeting the Doctors brown with his own silver.

As Jack expected, the Doctor didn’t appear fazed by the vampire standing before him. “Go on,” the Doctor challenged with a small shrug of his shoulders, never moving his wand. “Kill me. Prove that I’m right about how bad your grip of the vampire really is.”

“You’ve never thought I could control myself,” Jack muttered petulantly. “Even when I was a kid, nothing was ever good enough for you. Well, guess what, my control is _far_ better than you’ve ever given me credit for.”

The Doctor snorted with laughter and rolled his eyes. “Is that why there’s a vampire in front of me, rather than the wizard I raised, threatening to kill me unless I let him into the castle?” He nodded his head mockingly. “You’re right, Jack. Your control is fantastic.”

Neither of them spoke for what felt like a lifetime, until Jack’s fangs started to retract. “You can’t expect me to sit back and not react when someone threatens my daughter,” he said slowly. “Even if I wasn’t a vampire, you know I wouldn’t let anyone get away with that.”

Despite himself, the Doctor’s grip on his wand loosened and he lowered it, blinking in surprise at Jack’s words. “What?” he whispered. “What are you talking about?” he demanded.

Jack folded his arms across his chest. “Hart,” he stated simply. 

He had presumed that the Doctor wouldn’t believe him and he wasn’t disappointed when the headmaster rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. “For crying out loud, Jack! You two have had some kind of vendetta going on for twenty years. It was bad enough when you were at school, but now you’re adults, it’s practically pathetic. Isn’t it time you grew up?”

Jack’s upper lip curled as he snarled at the Doctor for a second - long enough to make the Doctor tighten the grip he held on his wand – before he quickly calmed himself. “ _I_ have,” he retorted. “Clearly Hart hasn’t, though. He’s always been jealous of me and now he’s decided to take that out on Alice.”

“Because of Lucia?” the Doctor asked sceptically. He wasn’t sure if he believed a word Jack was saying, but he couldn’t see any other reason why his potions Professor would harbour feelings of jealousy towards Jack.

Not wanting to explain to the Doctor that the reason Hart hated Jack so much was actually because of Ianto, Jack swiftly changed the subject to why he was at the school in the first place. “He’s been teaching third years how to brew the _perfect_ Rowan potion.” 

The Doctor gasped in horror at his words and automatically took a step back, looking for all the world like he had been punched in the stomach. “What?” he whispered, his face paling considerably as he fully registered the words Jack had said.

“Alice’s class were brewing a Rowan potion this afternoon,” Jack said, meeting the Doctor’s eyes to let him know that he was telling the truth. “You know what that potion can do.” he reminded him. “It killed mum and one _mouthful_ in fifth year put me in the hospital wing for almost a month.” He couldn’t help but feel a note of morbid satisfaction when the older man inhaled sharply at the mention of what the potion had done; although, whether it was the mention of Jack’s mother, or his own near-death experience, Jack couldn’t tell. “I’m just lucky that Hawkins was crap at potions,” he added. “Even the fact that I’m not a full vampire didn’t change how the potion affected me.” 

The Doctor scowled at the memory of Devon Hawkins. Hawkins had been a former student in Jack’s year, who had found out about Jack’s vampiric nature by accident after catching the other teenager drinking the blood that was required for him to survive, and decided that the fifteen year old vampire was a threat to the rest of the school. Hawkins had taken it upon himself to research and brew the Rowan potion, despite potions being his worst subject. He had slipped the potion into Jack’s drink in the Great Hall later that evening, and watched happily as Jack drank completely unaware. 

Hawkins had been expelled immediately and Jack had spent the following month secluded in the hospital wing under the pretence that he had contracted a mystery illness that they weren’t able to diagnose and didn’t want spreading around the school.

“Alice is only a quarter-vampire, but the result would still be the same if she drank a correctly brewed potion,” the Doctor mused more to himself than Jack. 

Jack nodded his head and opened his mouth to add something further, but the Doctor lifted a hand and cut him off before he speak. “But, be that as it may, I still can’t have you bursting into this castle and confronting him about this,” he insisted, earning him a fierce glare. “John is my teacher and I can’t let you kill him for endangering a student. I will deal with him,” he swore, already making a list of what he was going to say when he saw his potions professor next. 

There was silence for a moment, before Jack took a step backwards. “You’d better hope you do,” he warned, his voice barely more than a whisper. “If I find out that he’s managed to get away with threatening her, however indirectly that may, and that someone has found out the truth about Alice, I _will_ find a way into this castle and there won’t be a single thing you can do to stop me from tearing his throat out.”

Without saying another word, Jack turned on his heel and moved down the stairs, his long coat billowing his wake as he left the Doctor staring after him.

~

TBC


	15. Sirius Black

**Chapter 15: Sirius Black**

Ianto sighed happily and leant back on the couch in his private quarters. It was almost eleven and, after he had talked to Remus earlier, he had felt much better about telling Jack what had happened with Alice and Hart. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to speak to the Doctor until the following morning, he had headed back to his office and grabbed his firewhiskey, before settling down with a book in his quarters as he proceeded to drink half of the bottle. He wasn’t drunk in any sense of the word – he and Jack had been drinking since they had been fourteen, so he was more than capable of handling his alcohol – but the warmth of the fire was making him sleepy and it wasn’t long before he found himself wanting to go to sleep.

A knock on the window startled him and he turned his eyes in the direction of the sound, forcing himself to focus on the owl that was waiting not so patiently for him. It wasn’t a school owl and it was very unlikely to be a post office owl considering the time. With a groan, he got to his feet and detached the letter from the bird’s leg. As soon as it was free of its package, the bird turned and took flight, heading back to wherever it had come from. 

Ianto glanced down at the single piece of paper he was holding and suddenly felt stone cold sober. The short note wasn’t signed, but there was no need; after writing back and forth to Jack for six months, there was no way he wouldn’t recognise the handwriting. 

_Meet me in the usual place._

Another sigh escaped him, as he glared at the paper in his hand, wishing with all his might that it would catch fire. He should have known that Jack wouldn’t be able to let him sort John out by himself if there was the potential of danger to his daughter. Ianto scowled and crumpled the paper in his fist, throwing it onto the sideboard and grabbing his cloak from the hook it was hanging on.

Ianto stormed through the castle and out across the grounds with an irritated expression on his face, cursing his lover’s name all the way. Just as Jack had presumed, he knew exactly where the other man wanted to meet him; it was the same place they had used as students when they wanted to get away from the school and have space on their own. He only stopped walking when he was within ten feet of the Whomping Willow. With a look over his shoulder, he checked to make sure that there was no-one around, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wand. A murmured freezing charm was all it took to ensure that the tree wouldn’t attack as he got closer and slid through the secret entrance the tree concealed. 

It was easy to manoeuvre his way down the familiar corridor in the dark and it wasn’t below he reached the trap door that would take him up into the Shrieking Shack.   
Not knowing where Jack was, Ianto turned to the right, headed into the first room that he reached and was greeted with the sight of his lover standing by the empty fireplace, leaning against the wall as he waited. 

“What did I tell you?” he demanded storming into the room and glaring at Jack. “I told you to stay away.”

Jack sighed and pushed himself away from the wall. “I know,” he murmured, moving closer to Ianto. “But I-,”

Ianto raised a hand, cutting the other man off mid-sentence. “How long have you been here, J?” he snapped, pulling a scowl from the other man.

“Barely a minute. I apparated here,” Jack explained, nodding to the room around them.

The Welshman huffed in annoyance and ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t think that I don’t know why you’re here, J.” He moved closer to Jack and jabbed his index finger against his lover’s chest. “If the Doctor finds out you’re here, he’s going to go…” he trailed off when Jack looked away with a guilty expression on his face. “What did you do?” he asked warily, not entire certain he wanted to know the answer. 

Jack bit his lip and looked down, before bashfully looking up at Ianto through his eyelashes. “I might have already bumped into him earlier up at the castle,” he confessed softly.

The Charms teacher drew in a breath through his teeth and growled in annoyance at his lover’s impatience. “J! He’s only just got back from a meeting with Saxon; I was going to tell him in the morning!”

Jack offered him an apologetic look. “Oops?” he whispered, pouting a little in the hopes that it would calm Ianto’s anger.

Ianto, however, was unfazed by the sad puppy dog eyes being directed his way. “Tell me you didn’t do anything stupid,” he begged. When Jack remained silent, Ianto screwed his eyes closed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, letting out a long suffering sigh. “What did you do?” 

“I might have provoked him into pulling a wand on me,” Jack confessed, wincing at the cold glare Ianto threw in his direction. “And then I might have…” He trailed off, not wanting to fully admit how close he had come to losing his control.

“You might have…?” Ianto pressed. He had a feeling that he knew what Jack was trying to tell him, but wanted to see if his lover was man enough to admit what he had done. 

Jack knew exactly what Ianto was trying to do and that he wouldn’t be able to get away with not admitting the truth. “I threatened to bite him, okay?” he admitted petulantly.

Even though he had already known what Jack was going to admit, hearing him say it out loud still made him draw in a breath. “Of all the…” He shook his head and threw up his hands in exasperation. “That’s got to be one of the dumbest things you could do, J.”

“I know,” the other wizard murmured, running his hand over the back of his neck. “I didn’t mean to, but all I could think about was what would happen to Alice, and I didn’t realise what I was doing at first.”

Ianto sighed heavily and moved closer to his lover. “I know,” he whispered, lifting his hand and cupping Jack’s cheek. “But, the Doctor has always been looking for an excuse to take Alice from you. Threatening him isn’t going to convince him that you can take care of her properly.”

They both fell silent for a few minutes, until a crash sounded on the floor above them and they sprang apart in surprise. “What was that?” Ianto whispered, his gaze flickering to the ceiling about them. 

Jack didn’t answer immediately as he closed his eyes and tried to focus on hearing what was going on upstairs. Because he was only half-vampire, it was always harder to hear what was going on in rooms he wasn’t in and he had to almost let go of all his control over the vampire to focus properly. “I don’t know,” he eventually confessed, opening his now-silver eyes and focusing on Ianto. “I can hear people talking, but I can’t hear their voices or tell how many people there are.”

Without hesitating, Ianto reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. “Come on,” he said, moving to leave the room ahead of Jack.

Before the charms professor could move, Jack placed a hand on his arm and shook his head. “Out of the two of us, who can’t die?” he whispered with a raised eyebrow.

“You can die, J,” Ianto reminded him. “It’s just harder to do.”

Jack rolled his eyes, pulling out his own wand and heading out the room, muttering, “Details,” as he went.

Together, they headed down the corridor, towards the staircase that would take them to the floor above. At the bottom of the stairs, Jack paused and held a hand up to stop Ianto. “Blood,” he said, nodding down to the stains Ianto had seen on his arrival and dismissed as nothing more than mud. “What the hell’s going on?” he muttered under his breath as he tightened the grip on his wand, before slowly heading up the stairs. 

As they neared the top of the stairs, the voices began to get louder, but Jack still couldn’t make out who was talking or the words that were being said. Outside the door to what would have been the master bedroom, the couple paused and glanced at each other questioningly. When he was sure they were both ready, Jack reached out and pushed the tattered old door open and they stepped into the room. 

There was immediate silence at their entrance and Jack’s eyes went wide at the sight that was in front of him. Owen was lying in a heap on the floor with Draco crouched over him, while Alice was standing in the middle of the room with her wand drawn. 

“Dad?” Alice cried in surprise, seeing her dad and his boyfriend standing in the room. “What are you doing here?”

Jack raised an eyebrow in response and stepped closer to her. “Me? What the hell are you doing here? You should be in school,” he reminded her.

Remaining silent, Ianto stepped around his boyfriend and moved closer to where Owen and Draco were. “What happened?” he breathed when he realised that the blond was pressing a bloody cloth to his friend’s calf. 

“That dog bit him,” Draco whispered, moving to the side a little when instructed by his professor.

Ianto frowned deeply and studied the two Slytherin students. “What dog?” he asked. 

Silently, Owen lifted his hand and pointed across the room to where a figure was cowering behind a tall wardrobe in the corner. He didn’t know how Jack hadn’t noticed the other man’s presence, but when the vampire turned and followed gaze, Ianto knew he didn’t have time to dwell on that.

“You!” Jack spat instantly, drawing back his lips and baring his fangs as he started to advance on the man Owen had pointed out.

Knowing that there was no way this could end well, Ianto jumped to his feet and moved over to his partner. “J,” he said, grabbing hold of Jack’s arm as strong as he could, “don’t do this.”

Jack, however, had lost too much of his control over the vampire to listen and easily pulled his arm from Ianto’s grasp. The other man sighed heavily and moved so he was in front of him, fully blocking him from advancing on the figure in the corner. “J, listen to me!” he ordered, putting on his ‘teacher voice’ and placing his hands on Jack’s shoulders to try push him back a step, even though it made no difference as Jack was so much stronger than he was.

“Get off me!” Jack hissed, baring his fangs at Ianto. When the other man didn’t move, Jack rolled his silver eyes and tried to step around him, only to find his way blocked by Ianto once more. “I’ll kill you as well if you don’t move.”

Ianto shook his head and stood his ground. “I know you want to kill him and, believe me, I’m tempted to let you have your way. But, tearing his throat out isn’t going to make this any easier.”

A menacing smirk appeared on Jack’s face and his eyes flickered over to the figure in the corner again. “Rip his throat out?” the vampire shook his head. “That’s too good for him. I was planning on torturing him for long as I could until he was on the brink of death. Then I was going to drain him. I’ve always wondered what the blood of a traitor tasted like,” he mused, licking his lips at the very thought.

As Ianto tried to think of what he could do to bring Jack out of the revenge-fuelled trance he was, Alice took a step away from her father with a look of pure fear on her face; she had never seen Jack lose control of himself before. “Dad?” she whispered, sounding like she was about to burst into tears. 

The sound of her voice seemed to work perfectly on Jack, who blinked and turned his head in Alice’s direction. “Alice?” he whispered in confusion and Ianto was pleased to hear that the ruthlessness had disappeared from his voice.

Knowing that Jack still didn’t have full control and not wanting to risk him attacking the students, Ianto reached up and placed a hand on Jack’s cheek, turning his head back to face him. “I know you want to kill him,” he said when silver met blue, “but I need you to calm down. If you kill him, you’ll get thrown in Azkaban and we need you to stay with us.” Jack blinked again and, when his fangs slowly retracted, Ianto smiled and ran his thumb over Jack’s cheekbone. “Thank you,” he murmured. 

“So Hart was right, then?” the figure in the corner spoke, cutting through the silence that had filled the room. “You really are a vampire.”

Ianto growled in annoyance and glared over his shoulder. “Unless you want him to kill you, I suggest you shut up, Black,” he snapped in irritation.

Sirius Black scowled at the other wizard before heaving a sigh and folding his arms across his chest, falling silent as requested. 

They all jumped in surprise when the door burst open again and Remus darted into the room with his wand out, looking panicked. “Jack?” he asked in surprise; clearly he hadn’t been expecting to see his best friend in the building. “What are you doing here?” he added.

“We heard a sound and came up to see what it was,” Jack answered, indicating to him and Ianto. “How did you know there was something going on up here?” he demanded, nodding to the wand in his best friend’s hand.

“I saw a light on,” Remus explained. “There’s usually only someone here when I…” He trailed off as he glanced around the room, noticing the presence of the Slytherin students. “What happened?” he asked, unable to stop the breath that caught in his throat at the sight of Sirius standing in the corner with a petulant expression on his dirty face.

“A dog bit Owen and dragged him in here. Then he appeared out of nowhere,” Alice spat, glaring at Sirius where he was still standing in the corner, “and he’s been babbling about a rat ever since.”

Jack frowned deeply at her words. “What rat?” he asked, looking between the three friends as he silently demanded an answer.

Owen shifted where he was lying on the floor beside Draco and pushed himself into a sitting position. “I found it when we were at Donna’s,” he explained. “Just before curfew,” he lied quickly, seeing both Ianto and Remus raise an eyebrow at the admission that they were all out after hours. “She asked me to get rid of it for her.”

Taking a deep breath, Remus turned to face the man who had been his friend throughout their school years. Sirius shifted uncomfortably under the intense scrutiny of the other man’s gaze, but remained silence until Remus saw what he was looking for. “Where is this rat now?” he whispered, not taking his eyes off of Sirius.

Sirius took a step forward to show Remus, but Jack snarled at him and he quickly moved back to where he had been against the wall. “Over there,” he said softly, jabbing a finger in the direction of a ruined four poster bed that sat in the corner of the room. “He’s over there,” he said softly, meeting Remus’ eyes for a second before looking away and focusing on the almost destroyed bed. “I’ve been trying to tell them, but…”

“Enough!” Alice shouted, cutting through his sentence and making everyone jump. “I’m sick of listening to him going on about a rat. I want to know why he did what did, before I kill him.” 

Jack and Ianto exchanged alarmed glances at her words, before the vampire slowly stepped forward, not wanting to alarm his daughter. “You can’t kill him, Alice,” he whispered, moving behind her and wrapping his arms around Alice, pressing a kiss against her hair.

Alice scoffed and shook her head, moving out of Jack’s embrace. “Why not? Mum is dead because of him,” she spat, glaring in the corner at the escaped prisoner. “You were her boyfriend and you murdered her!”

At her words, the adults in the room froze and stared at her in shock. “How… How did you know that?” Jack asked, licking his lips nervously.

“I heard Rose and Saxon talking about how it was awful Black could do something so evil to someone he was supposed to _love_ ,” she muttered darkly. Jack winced and closed his eyes guilty. “What? Didn’t you think I’d want to know the truth about what happened to her?” Alice snapped, seeing the look on her father’s face.

Jack sighed heavily and reached out to place a hand on her shoulder. He frowned deeply when she moved away from him. “I was going to tell you when you were older,” he swore. “I didn’t want your opinion on your mum to change if you knew everything about her.”

Alice scowled and looked at him confusion. “She was going out with the man who betrayed her. How could that change my opinion of her?” she questioned.

Ianto took a step forward, placing a hand on Jack’s arm when the other man looked at him helplessly. “It’s more complicated than that, Alice,” he whispered. “But I don’t think this is the place to explain, do you?”

Before any of them could speak, Remus took a step forward. “I agree that explanations of what happened between Sirius and Lucia are left until later. Mr Harper will need medical attention pretty soon and, if Sirius is right, we need to find this rat.”

Alice huffed in exasperation and threw her arms up. “Not you too,” she muttered, turning on her heel and stalking over to where her friends were.

Draco’s eyes narrowed in suspicion and he glared at the Defence teacher. “You’re going to believe him just like that?” he asked, disbelief in his voice. 

Remus nodded his head and turned to Jack and Ianto. “Do you remember the rumour that there were a few students who were trying to become animagi in our sixth year?”

Ianto’s eyes widened in surprise and he stared at Sirius. “You managed it?” he asked, breathing out in awe when Sirius nodded his head.

Jack, who was trying to not look at Sirius, had his eyes focused firmly on his best friend. “What does this have to do with a rat?” he demanded. “You can’t tell me you think it’s really a wizard.”

The corner of Remus’ mouth twitched in a smirk and he nodded his head, “That’s exactly what I think,” he answered simply, earning him a scoff from Jack.

“Go on, then,” the vampire instructed, folding his arms across his chest and raising an eyebrow. “Who do you think this ‘rat’ is?”

“Adam Smith,” Sirius answered for him.  
~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been fighting with myself long and hard over whether to include Pettigrew in his original characterisation, or find a Torchwood/Doctor Who character that would work as well. Until an hour ago, Pettigrew was still in this story; and that was when I had a brain wave.
> 
> I've taken Adam's surname from the Torchwood Archives.


	16. A British Werewolf At Hogwarts

**Chapter 16: A British Werewolf At Hogwarts**

Alice’s head was reeling as they all headed out of the Shrieking Shack a short while later. When they’d left Donna’s earlier that evening, she hadn’t been expecting to find herself face to face with the man who had been her mother’s boyfriend, only for the truth about what had really happened to come to light. Remus and Ianto had managed to find the rat that Sirius had been talking about, and while Jack stood guard over the door, they had forced the animal to reveal himself as the wizard he really was.

After they had listened to Sirius’ explanation of what had happened on the day following Lucia’s death, he and Remus had gone about finding the ‘rat’ which was still hiding in the room. Ianto, being the expert on Charms, had been appointed to cast the spell that would force the wizard to show his true form. As Adam Smith transformed in front of them, Alice found herself thinking that Smith didn’t look anything like she had been expecting him to. Fair haired and fresh faced, he looked considerably younger than the other adults in the room, even though they were all the same age. 

She certainly didn’t think he looked as though he were capable of doing any of the things Sirius accused him of. But then, Alice reasoned with herself, that had been his intention; to act as unassuming as possible so he could in order to get in with those who had the greatest power.

The truth had come out about what he had done – Ianto had only needed to restrain his vampire boyfriend once during the explanation – before Remus announced that they needed to take Smith to the Doctor, if they wanted to stand any chance at being able to clear Sirius’ name.

That was how Alice had found herself supporting half of Owen’s weight with Draco as they helped their friend, who was now unconscious thanks to a spell from Ianto, back to the castle to get his leg looked at. Ianto had bound Smith, and he was now being escorted by Remus and Jack on either side, while Sirius was covering the rear.

Suddenly, Remus stopped with a gasp and looked up at the sky. Alice paused and followed his gaze before freezing in fear. As they had left the shade of the Whomping willow, the clouds had parted and the moon was able to shine through brightly. One thing Alice knew that not many people did was that werewolves were only able to transform when the light from the moon hit the earth’s surface; an over cast night would mean that a werewolf got the symptoms of a transformation, but never actually changed. 

“Oh god,” Remus muttered letting go the rope he was holding and clutching his stomach as pain shot through him. “Not now.”

From the other side of their prisoner, Jack turned back and shared a horrified look with Ianto, before turning back to Remus. “Remus, have you taken your Wolfsbane potion today?” he asked softly, trying not to spook the other man too much.

Without saying a word, Remus lifted his head and stared at the vampire with yellow eyes. “Shit,” Jack swore, taking a step back and putting himself between the students and his best friend. Before any of them could react, Remus let out a strangled moan and fell to his knees, his face contorting in agony as he transformed into a werewolf in front of their eyes.

Sirius’ eyes widened in horror when Remus let out a strangled moan and fell to his knees, his face contorting in agony as he transformed into a werewolf in front of their eyes. “You guys stay with the kids,” he ordered, transforming into the black dog that had attacked them earlier that evening.

“What?” Ianto exclaimed before Sirius could move. “You can’t do that!”

Beside him, Jack scoffed and shrugged his shoulders. “I say leave him: he’ll be fine,” he muttered darkly.

The dog lifted his head and growled at Jack. Ianto rolled his eyes, “J, stop baiting him,” he ordered. He turned and regarded the dog. “Will you be able to handle him?” he asked.

Sirius nodded once, before turning and pouncing on a now fully transformed werewolf, sending them both tumbling down the hill where they disappeared into the forbidden forest. 

Draco let out a cry of horror and they all turned to look where he was pointing, just in time to see Smith finish transforming into his rat form. “We have to stop him!” Jack exclaimed, looking around wildly as he tried to see where the rat had disappeared, but even with his enhanced eyesight, Smith was nowhere to be found.

A yelp from the forest sounded and Ianto spun on his heel, glancing into the woods. “That sounded like Black,” he mused, trying to see through the dense forest. “It sounded like he’d been hurt.”

“Good,” Jack muttered, jumping back when Ianto reached out and hit him. “What?” he asked defensively. “He’s a big boy, he can look after himself.”

Ianto rolled his eyes and growled in irritation. “If Remus kills him, he’ll never forgive you for not trying to stop it,” he lied; he knew the werewolf well enough to know that the only person he would blame was himself, but he knew that he couldn’t let Black get killed when Jack was more than capable of looking after himself around Remus during a full moon.

Their eyes met for a long moment, before huffed and shrugged out of his cloak. “Don’t lose this,” he instructed, handing the cloak to Ianto, before turning to Alice. “I won’t be long,” he whispered, running his hand over her hair. “You’ll make sure they get to the school?” Jack asked, taking a step closer to the Charms Professor.

“Of course,” Ianto swore, cupping Jack’s cheek and pressing a chaste kiss on his lips, just as another yelp sounded from the forest. “Hurry back,” he added, watching as Jack’s fangs lengthened before he turned and ran into the woods, following the sound of Remus and Sirius snarling at each other.

As soon as he was gone, Alice turned and glared up at the teacher. “How could you send him in there?” she demanded, sounding as though she was on the verge of tears. “You know what will happen if Uncle Remus gets to him.”

Ianto nodded his head solemnly. “I know,” he whispered, placing a hand on her shoulder and turning her in the direction of the school. “But we both know that your dad is the only one who has enough power to protect himself from Remus.” He moved to where Draco was struggling to keep Owen upright and wrapped an arm around the unconscious teenager. “You look confused, Mr Malfoy,” he commented, seeing Draco staring at him out of the corner of his eye as they slowly made their way to the castle.

“What did you mean when you said Mr Harkness is the only one who has enough power to protect himself?” the blond asked. “There’s nothing that can stop a wizard when the wolf has completely taken control.”

They walked in silence for a moment, before Ianto explained, “During a full moon, a werewolf is stronger than the average wolf, you’re right, but a vampire is still stronger. They’re quicker, extremely agile and more than capable of staying out of the wolf’s way. When a someone transforms, the wolf takes over their every thought and, unless controlled by Wolfsbane, the wizard is unable to keep hold of their control. Vampires are different.”

“How?” Draco asked curiously, wincing when he took a wrong step and went over on his ankle a little.

“Unless a vampire hasn’t fed, they’re able to keep control of themselves a lot easier than a wolf,” Alice answered distractedly, pausing at the base of the stairs and turning to face the forest. 

Draco frowned at her words, but before he could comment, Ianto jumped back in, “Exactly. That’s why it’s best for J to go in after Remus. It’s very rare he loses control, so he should be able to keep it together when confronted with Remus. Plus,” he added, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth, “it’s very hard to kill a vampire, as I’m sure you know.”

Alice saw Draco agree with Ianto, but she wasn’t focusing on what her friend and teacher were saying. On the other side of the school grounds, she could see the darkness moving and couldn’t figure out why. “Ianto,” she murmured, cutting through his and Draco’s conversation. “Is something moving over there?” she asked, raising a hand and pointing towards the entrance to the school.

Careful not to drop Owen, Ianto turned and let out a breath when he saw where she was looking. “That… We need to get in the castle now,” he ordered, pulling Owen and Draco up the stairs. When Alice didn’t move, he huffed and turned back to her, “Alice, those are Dementors. You need to get inside the school immediately.”

Her eyes widened at his words and she immediately went back to that day of the train when she had encountered the creatures for the first and what she had hoped was the last time. “What are they doing in the grounds?” she asked, knowing that the Doctor hated them being at school and there was no way he would want them on the school premises.

“I don’t know,” Ianto answered honestly. “I presume they’re looking for Sirius, and that’s why we can’t hang around.”

Alice however had stopped listening. The dark mass of Dementors had started moving into the forest on the other side to where Jack, Sirius and Remus had entered. “I’ve got to help dad,” she cried, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her wand.

“Alice, no!” Ianto shouted, trying to extract himself from Owen, but he was too slow; Alice was already a fair distance away from them and it wasn’t long before she vanished into the forest to save her father and mother’s boyfriend.

~

Alice had never been into the forbidden forest and she had no idea where she was going. Once she had gotten past the initial tree line, the forest had gotten a lot darker and denser, and it wasn’t long before she couldn’t see where she was going. “Lumos,” she whispered, holding her wand out when it lit to show her the way.

She could hear creatures scurrying all around her and every foot or so, a twig would break somewhere around her and she would jump wildly. “Dad?” she shouted, hoping that she wouldn’t draw the attention of anyone – or anything – that she didn’t want to encounter.

To her right, she could hear the sound of splashes and turned in the direction of the sound; it sounded as though there was a lake or something hidden away in the dense trees.  
“Dad!” she cried, coming to a stop at the top of a bank that led down to a lake that was illuminated by the light of the full moon above.

Jack was sitting on the forest floor, hunched over a seemingly unconscious Sirius who was lying on his back with a pained look on his face. At the sound of her voice, Jack lifted his head and Alice took a step back in horror when she saw that his fangs were still out and there was blood dripping from them. “Alice?” he whispered, running his tongue over his teeth in an attempt to wipe away the blood, but only managing to smear it more. “What did I tell you?” he shouted, his fangs glistening in the moonlight. “Get back to the school,” he ordered, pointing in the direction of the castle.

Despite her initial reaction to run at his words, Alice shook her head and made to move closer. She had no idea what was going on with her dad and Sirius, but refused to believe that she had just interrupted him draining the ex-convict, despite clear evidence to the contrary.

Before she could move, there was a noticeable shift in the air around them and the temperature dropped suddenly. Alice swallowed nervously and gripped her wand tightly, whispering _nox_ in a pitiful attempt to hide herself in the darkness of the trees behind her. 

She wasn’t the only one to notice the change in atmosphere in the clearing. Jack turned to look across the lake where, to her horror, Alice could see at least a dozen Dementors heading in their direction. “Alice, get out of here,” he ordered, not looking at her as he reached into his pocket and pulled his wand out as he got to his feet.

Ignoring his words completely, Alice tightened the grip on her own wand and ran down the bank until she was standing next to him. “I’m not leaving you, Dad!” she swore. 

Finally, Jack turned away from the Dementors and tried to push her back up the bank. “Get out of here!” he shouted, glancing over his shoulder and swearing when he saw that the Dementors were advancing quickly 

Alice knew it was too late to leave and, judging by the look of absolute horror on her dad’s face, she thought that Jack knew it as well. “Think of your happiest memory and hold it as tight as you can,” Jack instructed, his voice shaking as he reached out and grabbed her free hand as hard as he could. “I need you to think about that memory as hard as you can and say Expecto Patronum,” he added, lifting his wand and pointing in at the advancing Dementors. 

Swallowing thickly, Alice nodded her head and followed his example as she tried to focus on the happiest memory she could think of; going back hope with Jack at the end of the school year. She lifted a shaking hand and, trying to do what her dad had said, whispered, “Expecto Patronum.” To her dismay, the only thing that happened was a thin wisp of silver that burst from the end of her wand, before dissipating into thin air. 

Beside her, Jack didn’t seem to be having better luck than she was and he seemed like he was getting weaker, the closer the Dementors got. “Expecto patro-,” Alice tried again. She let out a cry when Jack collapsed beside her. “Dad!” she cried, giving up trying to stop the Dementors for the moment in favour of dropping to her knees beside her father and trying to rouse him. “Come on, Dad. Don’t do this to me,” she begged, shaking him violently, but the older vampire didn’t even stir.

Rustling sounded behind her and she turned to see the Dementors less than ten feet away and getting closer. Shakily, she held up her wand and tried to cast the spell one last time. “Expect- Exp-,” she stammered, before clearing her throat and trying again. “Expecto Patronum.”

Another wisp of light came from her wand, before disappearing into the darkness around her. She felt bile rise up in her throat when she saw the nearest Dementor move and a dead, slimy hand slid out from beneath its cloak, just like it had on the train. 

Her chest was hurting as she tried to take in deep breaths and tried to stay conscious. She had to force herself to keep her eyes open and focus on not vomiting when the nearest Dementor pushed its hood back, revealing the most disgusting face Alice had ever seen in her life. There was nothing more than grey, scabbed skin, stretched over empty eye sockets, and where the mouth should be, there was a huge, gaping hope that was inching closer to her face. 

_Expecto Patronum._ Her lips were moving as she tried to say the words, but no sound came out. 

Just before the blackness engulfed her, Alice heard a loud bang from the other side of the clearing and the Dementor hovering over her started in what Alice could only imagine was surprise. 

As the creatures began to move away and the weight on her chest lifted, Alice mustered up every available ounce of strength she could find and lifted her head, looking at what had scared the Dementors away from her, Jack and Sirius. To her surprise, she saw that there was a silver motorcycle flying around the clearing, chasing the Azkaban guards out of the clearing. It looked like the bike was made out of the same silvery stuff that had come from her wand earlier, but she didn’t know how that was possible; she hadn’t managed to successfully cast the spell and Jack had passed out before he had been able to.

Once all the Dementors had gone, the motorcycle pulled to a stop on the other side of the lake. The driver shut off the engine and reached up to unfasten his helmet, but before it was removed, Alice felt her strength draining from her and she passed out before she could see who the driver was. 

~

TBC


	17. Time And Relative Dimension In Space

**Chapter 17: Time And Relative Dimension In Space**

A pain shooting through her temple woke Alice up and she rolled over with a groan, clutching her head in an attempt to stop the jackhammer inside her brain.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” she heard Draco drawl from somewhere to her left, and she turned to face him, only to immediately regret that decision when she felt her throat constrict threateningly. 

“What happened?” she whispered, pushing herself into an upright position and glancing around the room, only then noticing that they were in the hospital wing of the castle. 

Draco was in the bed beside hers and he turned to face her as he spoke. “Hart found you unconscious by the lake,” he informed her, swinging his legs back and forth. “I overheard him saying to the Doctor that there were Dementors everywhere but something made them disappear. He didn’t know what it was, though.”

“It was a motorcycle,” she stated, remembering what she had seen before she’d passed out. “Someone conjured it, but I didn’t see who.” Draco frowned, but before he could ask more questions, Alice had one of her own. “Where’s my dad?”

A helpless look crossed Draco’s face and the blond shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “Professor Jones dropped me and Owen here, before going back out to find you.” He didn’t come back and Hart never mentioned him, so I have no idea where he is.” He nodded over to the bed on the other side of Alice and she followed his gaze, gasping when she saw Owen lying, in what she presumed was a potion induced, sleep. “Madame Pomfrey looked at his leg and patched him up,” he explained. “He’s been like that ever since.”

Before Alice could ask more questions, one of the doors to the hospital wing opened and they watched the Doctor slip through them. “Where’s my dad?” Alice demanded before the headmaster had even closed the door. Ignoring the pain in her head, she jumped up and stalked across the room, not stopping until she was directly in front of her great-uncle; it didn’t escape her attention that Draco had followed her – presumably to make sure that she didn’t do something she would regret. 

“Your father has been detained until I can determine how much of a threat he’s become,” the Doctor answered, choosing his words carefully.

Alice scowled at the teacher and Draco placed a hand on her arm when he saw her fingers twitching as though she was about to hit the Doctor. “He is not a threat,” she whispered, her eyes flashing sapphire as she spoke. “I don’t know what you think happened, but you’re looking at the wrong person. You need to-,”

The Doctor raised his hand, cutting her off before she could finish her sentence. “Alice, when Professor Hart found you and your father, it was clear to him that Jack attacked Black before the Dementors attacked.”

Alice huffed and put her hands on her hips as she glared at him. “It’s not what it looked like!” she swore, even though she wasn't sure what the truth was. “Is Black awake? Ask him, he’ll tell you what really happened!”

The Doctor placed his hands on his hips and stared down at her. “Please try to remember that during term time I’m not your great-uncle; I’m your headmaster,” he said, his voice taking on an unusually hard edge. “I can hardly take the word of a fugitive at face value, Alice,” the Doctor said warily. “He isn’t exactly known for being truthful.”

Draco huffed and threw his hands in the air. “It’s not as simple as that!” he exclaimed. “He was in prison for a crime he didn’t commit! That’s why he escaped in the first place.”

Alice nodded her head in agreement. “Just ask Professor Lupin,” she instructed. “He was there; he’ll be able to tell you everything!”

“Professor Lupin is currently nowhere to be found, and even if we did know where he was, I imagine he is in no fit state to be telling anyone anything,” the Doctor informed them. 

Both Slytherin students gasped and Alice’s hands flew up to cover her mouth. “You can’t find him?” she whispered, tears welling up in the corner of her eyes. “What about Ianto?” she asked, not realising that she had called him by his first name, until the Doctor’s eyes widened a fraction. 

“You’re on a first name basis with him?” he asked softly. 

When she had realised what she’d said, Alice rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t think that’s important right now,” she muttered, averting her eyes and trying to ignore how much she was blushing; she couldn’t believe she had slipped up so much when she knew that the Doctor didn’t know about Jack and Ianto’s relationship.

The Doctor shook his head with a frown. “Actually, I think it’s very important,” he corrected. “Especially considering your father has been demanding that I find Professor Jones ever since he regained consciousness. Is there something I should know about him and Professor Jones?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and looking down at her.

Alice huffed in annoyance and rolled her eyes. “This isn’t about him and my dad,” she snapped. “This is about you not doing something stupid based on what Hart says!”

“It’s Professor Hart to you, Alice,” the Doctor reminded her with a small sigh. “I know your father doesn’t like him, but please try to remember that he’s your teacher. Now, I want to know what happened earlier on this evening, before I even consider talking to Jack about this.”

The students exchanged glances, before Draco nodded his head and squeezed his best friend’s hand encouragingly. “We were getting some fresh air,” Alice lied, not wanting to admit that they were really at Donna’s in case she got her in trouble, “when this huge dog came out of nowhere and jumped at us. The dog bit Owen’s leg and dragged him into the Shrieking Shack, so we followed.” 

“And where did this dog disappear to?” the Doctor questioned, disbelief evident on his face. 

Alice opened her mouth, but before she could answer, Draco interrupted, “It was Black; he’s an animagus. As soon as we were inside the shack, he changed back and started talking about the rat we found.” He purposely left out that they had found the rat crawling around Donna’s hut; like Alice, he didn’t want the Doctor to know where they had been. 

“A rat?” the Doctor asked slowly, unable to keep the skepticism out of his voice. 

Both students nodded their heads. “It was an animagus as well,” Alice cried. “We saw him transform into Adam Smith!”

The Doctor laughed and shook his head. “Adam Smith?” he echoed, and they nodded their heads. “Smith was your mother’s cousin, Alice. He worshipped the ground Lucia walked on; there’s no way he would have betrayed her like that. Besides,” the Doctor continued, “I cast the Fidelius charm myself. Black was her secret keeper; end of story.” 

Alice sighed in annoyance, and ran her hand through her hair. “Sirius convinced mum that Smith would be a better secret keeper,” she swore. “He thought that it was less obvious for Smith to be mum’s secret keeper.”

Draco nodded his head. “They cast the spell themselves, that’s why you didn’t know about Smith.”

“And I suppose Black told you all this, did he?” he asked, looking between the two friends and sighing when he saw how serious they looked. “Fine,” he muttered, sitting down on the nearest bed, “start from the beginning and tell me everything,” he instructed, seconds before they dove into a detailed explanation of the night’s events.

When they’d finished, the Doctor looked stunned and his complexion was several shades lighter than it had been earlier. “Where is Smith now?” he whispered.

“He disappeared into the forest before we could stop him,” Draco answered, a note of despair obvious in his voice.

They fell silent for a moment, until a clock chimed in the distance and the Doctor frowned deeply, reaching into his pocket and pulling out an antique fob watch. “I have to go,” he murmured as he got to his feet from where he had sat on an empty bed while he had been listening to Alice and Draco’s explanation.

Alice scowled and jumped up, running across the room after him. “Go where?” she demanded. “Because unless it’s to let my dad out, you’re not going anywhere,” she informed him.

The Doctor sighed heavily and glanced back at his watch, before wincing and looking back at his great-niece. “Dementors will be coming into the castle any minute now,” he said softly. “They’re here for Black; I had no choice but to call them.” 

“What- What are they going to do?” Alice stammered, not sure she was ready to hear the truth. 

“The Dementor’s have this… ability,” the Doctor explained. “They don’t just suck the life of the air around them, they’re able to take someone’s soul if they get close enough. They call it the ‘Dementor’s Kiss’.” A sick feeling began to grow in Alice’s stomach when she thought about what had happened earlier that night with the Dementors in the clearing. 

“You’re going to kill Black?” Draco asked.

The Doctor shook his head. “The Dementor’s kiss is much worse than death, Mr Malfoy,” he explained. “You can survive without your soul as long as your body remains alive and functioning. Only you wouldn’t be you; you’d be a shell of yourself. That, I’m afraid, is the punishment that awaits Sirius Black.”

A thought suddenly occurred to Alice and her eyes narrowed suspiciously. She opened her mouth to voice her accusations, but Draco beat her to it, “You were planning on having them give Mr Harkness the kiss as well, weren’t you?”

Even though she had been about to accuse the headmaster of that herself, when he didn’t answer, Alice’s jaw dropped open in horrors. “You’d do that to your own nephew?” she croaked, swallowing thickly around the lump in her throat. “The nephew you raised as your own?” she added, willing down tears that were threatening to fall.

“Of course not!” the Doctor exclaimed, his tone and expression so sincere that it was hard for Alice not to believe him. “But, the Dementor’s don’t discriminate against who is innocent and who is guilty. If they can take someone’s soul, they will. That is why I need to leave right now,” he added, smoothing down his robes as he headed to the door. “If I am not there, I’m afraid, they’ll give it to him regardless.”

At the door, the Doctor paused and glanced back at the Slytherin students. “I think, right now, we could use a little more time,” he said cryptically. “I think 7682 should do the trick, Mr Malfoy.” He offered the blond a tight smile that Alice noticed didn’t fully reach his eyes. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to save more than one innocent life tonight.” He turned the handle and opened the door, before pausing again and looking at Draco with a serious expression on his face. “Remember what I told you, Mr Malfoy; you mustn’t be seen by anyone. You know the danger. It would also be wise to be back here before eleven forty-five”

Alice had no idea what her great-uncle was talking about, but judging by the look on her best friend’s face, Draco clearly knew exactly what the Doctor meant as nodded his head, watching silently as the other wizard ducked out of the hospital wing, closing the door softly behind him. “What was he talking about?” she demanded, turning to her best friend as soon as the door was closed behind the Doctor.

Draco, who was grinning from ear to ear, placed his hand in hers and pulled her towards the door the Doctor had just left through. “Come on,” he instructed, dragging her from the room and running down the corridor. Together they sprinted through the school, not stopping until they reached the entrance to the Slytherin common room. 

“What the hell is going on, Draco?” Alice demanded, stomping down the stairs to his dormitory after the blond. “In case you forgot, my dad could be getting the Dementor’s Kiss any second. I should be trying to think of a plan to get him out.”

But her friend wasn’t listening as he started rummaging around in the trunk at the end of his bed. “Have you noticed that anything strange has happened with me this year?” he asked, finding what he was looking for and slamming the trunk closed. 

Alice nodded her head. “I saw you come into Charms twice last week.”

Draco winced and a flush coloured his cheeks. “That’s because I misjudged the journey a bit,” he confessed.

“Journeys? Draco, what the hell are you talking about?” Alice demanded, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at him. 

Draco crossed the room to an empty corner. “I found this at the beginning of the year,” he said, waving his hands in a manner similar to muggle game show hosts as they revealed the star prize.

It was only then that Alice realised there was a large, blue wooden box behind Draco with the words ‘Police Public Call Box’ emblazoned above the doors. “Where did that come from?” she demanded, positive that it hadn’t been there earlier. 

The blond smirked and opened his palm to reveal a small bag similar to the one Alice used to keep her key in. “I have no idea,” he confessed, pulling out a key identical to Alice’s. “Just after lessons started in September I was on the fifth floor, wishing I didn’t have to get up so early for lessons and it appeared out of nowhere.”

Alice reached out and took the key from her friend, turning it over as she inspected it. “This is the same as mine,” she stated, seeing the word TARDIS printed on the metal. 

“I wonder why it has two keys,” Draco mused, taking the key back from her and unlocking the blue wooden door. 

“The Doctor said that the key was my dad’s. Knowing him, he probably copied the original so he’d be okay if one of them got lost,” Alice theorised. 

Draco nodded his head in agreement and pushed the door open. “That’s presuming he knows this is what the key goes with,” he pointed out. Without saying another word, he grabbed Alice’s hand and pulled.

As soon as she was inside the TARDIS, Alice felt her jaw drop open in surprise. She was inside a cavern; she was sure of it. What looked like a small wooden Police Box on the outside; had opened up to reveal a room about twice the size of her dorm room. “Wow,” she whispered, running her hand over the centre console as she walked around. “This is amazing,” she added. 

She watched as Draco moved over to a screen that was attached to the console. “What number did the Doctor say?” he asked, his eyes flicking up to her face.

“7682,” Alice answered with no hesitation. “Are you telling me that those numbers actually mean something to you?” she added when Draco looked back at the screen and began tapping on it.

The blond tilted the screen in her direction and she frowned when she saw that nothing on the screen was in English. “If we use that setting we’ll go back three hours,” he informed her, pointing to the left of the screen.

Alice raised a questioning eyebrow. “How do you know that?” she asked, looking back at the screen in case she’d missed something, but everything was still in a different language. 

Draco shrugged his shoulders. “I have no idea,” he confessed. “I just know that, to me, this screen might as well be in English; I can understand everything.” He moved his hand to a green rectangle in the bottom corner of the screen, before hesitating and glancing back at his friend. “You might want to hold on,” he advised, waiting until she had grabbed hold of a nearby rail before pressing the button.

Immediately, Alice felt the room tilt and she had to press her lips together to stop herself from being sick from the sudden lurch. Less than thirty seconds later, the room stopped spinning and straightened itself out, much to Alice’s relied. “Did it work?” she whispered once she was sure it was safe to open her mouth. 

Draco nodded and pulled the key from where he had slotted it into the console. “Come on,” he said, pocketing the key and grabbing hold of her hand before pulling her across the TARDIS. “Have you got your key?” he asked, pausing at the door and waiting until Alice nodded her head. “You might want to get it out; the Doctor said we can’t be seen,” he reminded her.

“How did he know you had this?” Alice asked, pulling her own key from its little bag.

Draco shrugged his shoulders and pulled the door open. “Probably the same way he seems to know everything that goes on around here.”

Alice followed him as he stepped out of the TARDIS and scowled when she saw that they were still in his bedroom. “I thought you said it worked,” she accused. 

The blond rolled his eyes and pushed back his sleeve, looking at the muggle watch she had given him for Christmas – she knew that he would never confess to liking it. “Look,” he instructed, showing her the face which showed that he was right and they really had gone back in time three hours. 

“Wow,” Alice breathed, watching as Draco locked the door of the TARDIS once more. “Why do you think he wanted us to come back three hours?” she questioned, biting her lip in thought. “What was happening then that was so important?”

Draco drummed his fingers against the door of the TARDIS as he tried to remember what had happened earlier that day; with everything that had happened that evening, it was hard to remember anything before that. “The Doctor said if we were lucky, we might be able to save more than one life,” he recalled. “What did you think that meant?”

Alice shrugged helplessly. “I have no idea,” she confessed. “Where were we before we ended up in the Shrieking Shack?”

“We were on our way down to Donna’s,” Draco exclaimed, looking excited that he had managed to remember why they were doing.

Their eyes met and, for the first time, Alice noticed that his eyes actually had a hint of blue in them instead of the grey she had always thought. “Are you sure you haven’t come back too far?” she asked, averting her eyes from Draco’s and trying to ignore how much she was blushing; hopefully he hadn’t realised, considering even she didn’t know why her cheeks were feeling so hot. “It’s ages since Dad and Sirius get attacked by Dementors. There’s nothing we can…”

“Yes, we can,” Draco argued, a smile lighting up his face as he realised why their head teacher had sent them so far back in time. “The Doctor wants us to save Buckbeak as well.”

~

TBC


	18. Previously On Alice Harkness...

**Chapter 18: Previously On Alice Harkness…**

Watching herself walk down from the school to Donna’s house was in the top ten most surreal moments of Alice’s life, she decided. Her and Draco were crouched behind some of the largest pumpkins she had ever seen in her life, while the past versions of them were heading into the house completely unaware of who was sitting nearby, just out of sight.

“This is so weird,” she heard Draco whisper under her breath and she couldn’t help nodding her head in agreement.

The door to the house clicked closed and she sighed, leaning back against the pumpkins and glancing over at her friend. “How long do we have to wait?” she questioned. She had suggested taking Buckbeak immediately, but Draco had insisted that they had to let Saxon see the hippogriff when he arrived with Macnair to carry out the execution.

“Not long,” Draco assured her, leaning up and looking over the top of the pumpkins. “I think Owen’s going to find the rat in a minute,” he mused. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Alice growled and jumped to her feet, ready to bolt into the house. “What do you think you’re doing?” Draco demanded, grabbing her and pulling her back down.

She leant up and looked over the pumpkin, glaring towards Donna’s house. “Smith’s in there,” she reminded him. “If I go in there and get him-,”

Draco shook his head and held up a hand, cutting her off before she could finish the thought. “You can’t,” he told her. “If you go bursting through the door, the you that’s in there will think there’s some dark magic to blame and probably kill you.”

Alice frowned deeply, trying and failing to understand what he was talking about. “What?”

The blond sighed heavily and ran his hand through his hair, knowing that he wasn’t explaining it very well. “When I first found the TARDIS, I went to the library did some reading about time travel. All the books that I could find said that if you travel back in time and touch your past self, even if you do it by accident, it’ll create a paradox.”

“What’s a Paradox?” Alice questioned softly. She had no idea what her friend was talking about, but it didn’t sound good at all. 

A bashful look appeared on Draco’s face and he grinned sheepishly. “Well, I don’t know, exactly,” he confessed. “It didn’t explain that part. But I do know that if you go in there and create one, you’ll rip a hole in the fabric of reality.”

Alice swallowed nervously and nodded her head. “Okay,” she whispered. “That’s bad.”  
“Yeah,” Draco agreed. “That’s why we’ve got to let things play out like they did earlier,” he said and the look on his face told Alice that he didn’t like the idea at all.

~

Buckbeak was happily munching away at the plants behind them as Draco and Alice sat, hidden in the shadows, near the lake where the Dementors would appear in a short while. As it had turned out, setting the hippogriff free before it could be executed was the easier task; convincing both it and Draco that they needed to get along, had been a surreal and difficult experience. 

“Why’d you think the Dementors left?” Draco asked, breaking through the silence they had been sitting in for a short while.

Alice, who had been using a stick to draw pictures in the dirt, stopped what she was doing and placed the stick down. “Someone cast a spell,” she answered.

Draco frowned and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “What spell?”

“Expecto Patronum,” she recited from what Jack had told her earlier. “I tried to cast it, but it didn’t work for me or dad. I don’t know who cast it, but whoever it was probably saved our lives.”

The blond let out a shaky breath and nodded his head. They were silent for another moment, until Draco spoke again, “If I ask you something, you promise you won’t get mad at me?” Alice turned and stared at him in confusion, not sure if she wanted to know what he was about to ask her. When she nodded her head, confirming that he could ask his question, Draco drew in a deep breath, before asking, “When we were in the Shrieking Shack, was what Black said about your dad right?”

Alice inhaled sharply, remembering that Sirius had inadvertently given away Jack’s secret. Part of her considered lying to him and trying to convince him that Sirius had only said that to wind up her dad, but a small voice in the back of her head reminded her that not telling her friends the truth was the Doctor’s rule; the same man that had locked up his nephew without a second thought.

Besides, she reasoned to herself, it wasn’t as if Draco was working for Lord Voldemort; he was her best friend and she trusted him with her life. “Yeah,” she whispered.

To her surprise, Draco didn’t look scared or alarmed; if anything he looked thoughtful. “I presumed it was since Professor Jones called him a vampire as well. That must mean you’re one as well,” he mused more to himself than Alice. “Well, that makes sense,” he added, not waiting for her to confirm or deny it.

Alice frowned deeply. “Why does it make sense?” she asked, trying to work out when he could have possibly figured out the truth; she tried so hard to keep control of herself around her friends, and she didn’t think she had slipped up.

A grin spread across the other Slytherin’s face. “Whenever someone annoys you, or there’s blood around, your eyes flash a different shade of blue,” he explained. “I thought I was imaging it the first few times, but when we were in the three broomsticks listening to Rose and Saxon they were…” He paused, trying to think of the right word to explain the colour her eyes turned.

Knowing what he was trying to do, Alice finished, “Sapphire.” Draco nodded his head. “You’re not going mad,” she assured him. “Well, you are, but that’s a different story,” she corrected herself with a shake of her head. Draco laughed loudly, but otherwise didn’t speak and Alice bit her lip nervously. “You hate me now, don’t you?” she whispered, unable to keep the fear that her best friend would turn against her out of her voice.

To her surprise, Draco snorted with laughter and shook his head. “Why would I hate you?” he scoffed. “If I was going to stop being your friend because of what you really are, I would’ve done something earlier in the year,” he pointed out.

Alice smiled widely at him and whispered, “Thank you.”

Nothing else was said as they both turned and, as they both turned to watch the lake again, Alice couldn’t help but grin to herself. She had been so worried that, if they ever did find out the truth about what she really was, her friends would hate her; she still had no idea how Owen was going to react, but at least she knew that Draco didn’t care.

“Look,” Draco murmured, elbowing her in the ribs and making her jump in surprise. 

She lifted her head and followed his gaze, seeing Sirius falling down the bank and landing in a heap at the bottom. “He’s bleeding,” she whispered, earning herself a surprised look from the blond. “I can smell it,” she explained. “It’s not very strong from this distance, but I know what blood smells like.” She shook her head and chuckled when Draco pulled a face at her words.

They watched in silence as Jack appeared and crouched down beside Sirius. Through the moonlight that was illuminating the clearing, they could see that the older wizards were clearing talking to each other. “Can you hear what they’re saying?” Draco whispered, lowering his voice to the point that Alice could barely make out the words; she knew that he didn’t want to risk Jack catching them. Thankfully, her dad seemed too distracted by Sirius to pay attention to his surroundings.

“Uncle Remus scratched him,” Alice summarised, keeping her eyes firmly on Jack and her mother’s boyfriend. “It won’t turn him into a werewolf because it wasn’t a bite, but it’s still bleeding pretty bad.”

When Jack knelt down and pushed Sirius’ pant leg up, what the Doctor had said about it looking like Sirius had been attacked by the vampire made perfect sense. “Vampire saliva has healing properties,” Alice explained to her friend as Jack licked the bloody wound on the other man’s leg. “That explains why I saw my dad with blood on his mouth.” She stood up when she saw the past version of herself arrive in the clearing and pulled out her wand, tightening her grip on it as she watched.

“What are you doing?” Draco hissed, getting to his feet and throwing a look over his shoulder to make sure that Buckbeak was still there. The hippogriff was still munching away on a large blue plant he had found.

Alice didn’t take her eyes from the scene in front of her as she answered, “The Dementors will be here soon. I don’t want them getting too close to us.”

Draco’s eyes widened fearfully at her words and he glanced around them as though he expected one of the guards to appear at the mere mention of their name. Together they watched Alice and Jack talking, before the air went colder, indicating that the unwelcome visitors were on their way. “This is it,” Alice whispered, holding her wand tightly and looking around the clearing. “Now I’ll see who cast that spell.”

The Dementors were getting closer and closer to the small group, and this mysterious person was still nowhere to be seen. “Come on,” the female Slytherin student begged under her breath. “Where are you?” she added.

“Alice,” Draco murmured regretfully, placing a hand on his friend’s arm. “I don’t think anyone’s going to come. There’s just us,” he added, indicating to the pair of them.

At his words, Alice’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped in realisation. “Of course,” she muttered. “I know who cast that spell!” She took a step forward, out of the shadows before Draco could stop her, raised her wand and yelled, “EXPECTO PATRONUM,” with as much conviction as she could.

To both of their surprises, a burst of sliver light erupted from the end of her wand and immediately headed towards the Dementors. As it moved, the mist changed into the shape of a silver motorcycle and rider, ready to drive away the guards that were about to reach the trio on the other side of the lake. They watched with baited breath as the Dementors shied away from the motorcycle as though they were injured. One by one, the figures slowly moved out of the clearing and continued through the forest.

Once it was sure the clearing was empty, the motorcycle turned in mid-air and headed back to them. Alice’s breath caught in her throat when the motorcycle stopped in front of her and the driver reached up to unfasten the helmet. “Dad?” she whispered when the driver’s identity was revealed. The figure on the bike flashed her a grin and nodded his head. The silver version of her dad glanced over his shoulder at the unconscious figures he had just protected. 

When he was sure they were safe – at least, that’s what Alice presumed the spell-version of Jack was doing – he turned back to Alice and winked, before slowly fading until he disappeared from view completely.

~

TBC


	19. The Fugitive(s)

**Chapter 19: The Fugitive(s)**

The Hogwarts clock tower was striking eleven-fifteen when Buckbeak landed on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest after Alice and Draco had successfully managed to break both Jack and Sirius from their respective prisons. Opening the locks on the doors had been the easier part, Alice mused as the hippogriff came to a stop and Jack jumped down; convincing her dad that they needed to hurry and that they wouldn’t get in trouble, had been the difficult part.

“What are you going to do now, Black?” Jack asked, reaching up and helping his daughter climb down from Buckbeak.

Sirius, who had jumped off the opposite side of the beast, shrugged his shoulders as he helped Draco down. “Lay low for a while, I would imagine,” he answered, moving around Buckbeak and looking at the other wizard. “The way I see it, me and Buckbeak are both fugitives; we’re going to have to stick together,” he added, running a hand down the Hippogriff’s side. The former Gryffindor turned his head and grinned down at Alice who was looking at him with tears in her eyes. “Why are you crying?” he asked softly, kneeling on the floor and taking her hands in his despite Jack’s growl of irritation; if anything, Jack’s annoyance, seemed to amuse Sirius more than scare him. “You saved my life and that’s something to be happy about,” he added, reaching out and placing his hand in Draco’s to pull the blond closer when he saw that Draco looked almost as upset as Alice.

Jack snorted and rolled his eyes, but otherwise remained silent as he took a step back. Even though he would be the first to admit that they had never gotten along and that he couldn’t stand the other wizard, he knew it was only fair to let Sirius have a moment alone with the teenagers to say goodbye before he had to leave. He had been a part of Alice’s life before Lucia had been killed; whether Jack liked it or not.

“Alice,” Sirius whispered, running his thumb over the back of the young girl’s hand. “You look and act just like your mother,” he added, a note of sadness and regret tinting his voice. “She would be so proud of you,” he told her, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand. He glanced over at Draco and smirked slightly, “As for you, Mr Malfoy. You look exactly like your father. Thankfully you don’t act like him, though.” Draco turned and glared at him when Jack let out a bark of laughter at Sirius’ words. 

“Alright, Black,” Jack said, taking a step forward and glancing at the time; it was getting late and he knew that they didn’t have much time before the Dementors would arrive at the castle again. “Unless you want them to catch you again, and throw us all in Azkaban, you’re going to have to leave.”

Sirius sighed heavily, following Jack’s gaze to the clock, before he reluctantly nodded his head. “I’ll write to you soon,” he swore, turning to Alice and hugging her tightly, before clapping Draco on the back. “Can I have a word with you before I go?” he asked, looking at Jack with an expression that told the other wizard he likely wouldn’t like the conversation that was about to follow.

Before Jack could even register the question, never mind answer, Sirius stalked away from the teenagers and Buckbeak. “Before you say whatever you’re going to,” Jack began warily, following the other wizard until they were right on the edge of the forest, “I should point out that Alice is listening to every word you say; even from this distance.”

Sirius frowned and turned to see Alice looking away with a guilty expression on her face and a blush colouring her cheeks. “She’s definitely your daughter,” he muttered with an affectionate shake of his head. “Hurry up and cast a silencing charm so I can say what I need to and then get out of here.”

Jack scowled deeply at being told what to do but, knowing that time was of the essence, didn’t argue as he waved his hand, casting a silencing charm that hopefully Alice wouldn’t be able to penetrate; Ianto had been so much better at charms than he had.

“That boy,” Sirius began. “Their friend, Owen.” Jack inhaled sharply, already knowing where Sirius was going with his questioning. “Who are his parents?” Sirius demanded, even though he already knew the truth. Jack’s reaction had given it away instantly.

“His surname is Harper,” Jack answered carefully, eyeing Sirius as he tried to gauge what the other man was going to do.

Sirius snorted and rolled his eyes. “You of all people should know that surnames make no difference when it comes to parentage. Everyone knows that Harkness is your mother’s surname, not your birth name. What’s your father’s name, Jack?” he asked, raising a sarcastic eyebrow. Jack didn’t answer as he pressed his lips tightly together; the familiar feeling of wanting to rip Sirius’ throat out was returning and he knew that he didn’t have time to lose control of himself. “How long have you known?” Sirius asked pointedly.

“Since two months after he’d been conceived,” Jack answered honestly, not able to find it in himself to lie to Sirius now. Deep inside, he hated that he was telling secrets that weren’t his, but he knew what it felt like to have someone hide such a huge event from him; he hadn’t found out that Lucia was pregnant for almost five months and he had hated her for not telling him sooner. He couldn’t let the truth be hidden from the other man for any longer. “I helped arrange for him to be taken in by Molly and Arthur,” he softly confessed.

Sirius took a shuddering breath in and nodded slowly. “Does he know?” he whispered.

Jack shook his head. “I don’t think so. Molly and Arthur said they were going to tell him he was adopted when he came of age. They don’t know who his birth parents are,” he added.

The former Gryffindor glanced to the side and Jack followed his gaze, chuckling to himself when he saw that Alice and Draco were still standing near Buckbeak, looking both confused and annoyed that they couldn’t hear what was being said. “Why did -,” he began, but Jack held a hand up, cutting him off mid-sentence.

“You were already back with Lucia by the time anyone realised there was anything out of the ordinary going on,” he explained. “If… If you want to know the details, you’re going to have to ask the questions yourself.” Behind them, the clock struck half past the hour and Jack waved his hand, dropping the silencing charm. “You’re really going to have to go now, Black,” he said, moving back over to Alice and Draco.

Even though it was obvious to them all that he didn’t want to leave, Sirius flashed them a brilliant smile as he climbed up onto Buckbeak. Thirty seconds later, he dug his heels into the side of the beast and was in the air in the blink of an eye.

The trio watched until the silhouette of Sirius and Buckbeak disappeared from sight behind the castle. Jack turned to look at his daughter and Draco, placing a hand on her shoulder and squeezing softly until she looked up at him with tears shining on her cheeks. “You two need to get back to the Hospital Wing,” he whispered, gently wiping the tears from her face.

Alice nodded her head and looked at the castle, before turning back to Jack. “What about you?” she asked, fear obvious in her voice. 

“You’re not planning on going back to that cell!” Draco exclaimed, making Jack chuckle at the concern his daughter’s friend was showing for him.

The older wizard smiled and clapped the blond on the back. “Of course, I’m not,” he scoffed with a shake of his head. He hugged Alice tightly and pressed a kiss against her forehead. “I need to find Ianto,” he explained, his eyes turning to the forbidden forest. “I have no idea where he is, but if he’s in the forest with Remus, he’ll need me to make sure they don’t get on the wrong side of each other.” 

Jack glanced at the clock and winced when he saw it was almost time for them to be back in the hospital wing. “I promise I’ll be okay,” he swore. “I’ll come and find you at sun rise when Remus changes back into himself.”

He tried to nudge them back towards the school, but Alice remained rooted to the spot; clearly she wasn’t planning on leaving him, regardless of his words. Draco, seeing that his friend was being her usual stubborn-self, placed his hand in hers and pulled her towards the castle. “Come on,” he whispered. “He’s right; we need to get back.”

Jack offered him a thankful smile, before turning and disappearing into the forest to look for Ianto. 

Together, Alice and Draco ran through the school as fast as they could, not paying attention to the portraits that told them off for running in the halls, or the ghosts that threw them confused looks as they floated past.

The clock was beginning to strike quarter past the hour as they slipped through the door back into the hospital wing where Owen was just starting to wake from the magic induced sleep he had been in. 

“What happened?” Owen murmured sleepily, running hand over his face as he pushed himself into an upright position.

Alice and Draco explained an amused look, before the female Slytherin shrugged her shoulders. “We’ll explain later,” she answered, moving to the bed she had woken up on earlier that evening. “It’s a long story.”

TBC


	20. Loyalties

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have three apologies to make:
> 
> 1\. I'm sorry for the time it's taken me to post this chapter. I was feeling ill yesterday, and wanted nothing to do with the computer.  
> 2\. Apologies for the length of this chapter; I tried to make it longer, but it just wasn't working out.  
> 3\. See end of story.

**Chapter 20: Loyalties**

The following day, the Doctor stood in the doorway to the castle, watching Ianto and Alice say goodbye to Jack. A carriage was waiting nearby to take Jack far enough away from the castle for him to apparate wherever he liked.

While he had always known that Jack didn’t have a preference when it came to the gender of his partners, seeing him with Ianto left the Doctor more surprised than he remembered feeling for a long time. He had known they’d been friends while they’d been at school – it was hard not to know, when they had been joined at the hip from the age of eleven – but he had never even considered that their connection could be deeper than friendship. 

Eventually, Jack managed to tear himself away from them long enough to climb into the carriage. As soon as the door was closed behind him, it slowly began to make its way down to the castle gates, leaving Alice standing beside the Charms teacher at the bottom of the stairs, clutching his hand tightly.

When the carriage disappeared beyond the gates, the pair turned and began moving up the staircase, chatting quietly to each other. Halfway up the stone steps, Ianto noticed the Doctor standing there and his steps faltered for a moment, before he recovered.

Immediately an apprehensive look appeared on the Welshman’s face. “Doctor,” Ianto greeted softly with a small incline of his head. 

The Doctor mimicked his action and nodded in return. “Professor,” he replied, purposely his voice as neutral as he could. “Alice,” he added, managing a genuine smile as he looked down at his great-niece. She smiled tightly at him, but remained silent and the Doctor had to bite back a sigh; he had hoped that by allowing Draco to use the TARDIS to save Jack and Sirius, he might have somewhat redeemed himself in her eyes. 

“Ianto, can I see you in my office for a moment?” the older wizard asked, turning his brown eyes to the Charms Professor. 

Ianto hesitated – it was obvious that he knew nothing good could come from their conversation – nodding and glancing at Alice. “I’ll see you at dinner,” he murmured, running a hand over her hair and offering her a small smile when she looked at him with worried eyes.

Their eyes met for a moment, before the young Slytherin returned his smile with one of her own. The Doctor watched sadly as she turned on her heel and head for the Slytherin common room without saying goodbye or looking back. 

He waited until she was out of sight, before turning and heading through the school towards his own office; he didn’t look back to see if Ianto was following. 

Ianto sighed heavily and began following the Doctor at a much slower pace. He had no desire to be alone in the other man’s office after learning what he had almost let the Dementors do to Jack; he wasn’t sure he would be able to keep control of his temper without someone else around. 

By the time the Charms professor had made his way up the stone staircase that led to the headmaster’s office, the Doctor was already sitting behind his desk, idly running his fingers over the polished wood in front of him as he waited.

“Is there a problem?” Ianto asked as soon as he arrived. He didn’t want to spend longer with the Doctor than he had to and wanted to get out of the room as quickly as possible. 

The Doctor remained silent as he watched Ianto close the door softly behind him and cross the office. “Sit down please, Ianto,” he requested, ignoring the question and indicating to the chair opposite him.

Before Ianto could say anything, the Doctor rested his elbows against the desk, watching as he sat down. “How long have you and my nephew been in a relationship?” he asked, studying the Welshman closely enough to make Ianto feel uncomfortable. 

Ianto stared at him, trying to decide how much he should tell the Doctor, before he finally answered, “Almost two years.” He saw no need to tell the other wizard that he and Jack had been in a relationship for almost seven years before the vampire had left the Wizarding World. 

“I see,” the Doctor murmured. “And you didn’t think it prudent that I should know if a member of my staff is in a serious relationship with a dangerous creature?”

Ianto’s eyes narrowed with hatred at the other wizard’s words. He took a deept breath, trying to keep his cool and not lash out at the other wizard, which wouldn’t have been a help to anyone. “Don’t talk about him like that,” he ordered. The Doctor raised an eyebrow and Ianto took another breath, before slowly exhaling. “He is not a dangerous creature,” the younger man continued. “I don’t recall seeing anything in my employment contract that dictated who I should or shouldn’t become romantically involved with. I don’t see why I should reveal private details about my personal life just because you have some kind of problem with the person I’m seeing.”

“Mr Jones, my problems with my nephew are none of your concern,” the Doctor stated, his voice annoyingly calm and emotionless.

Finally unable to stop himself, Ianto growled under his breath. “What’s your point, Doctor?” he demanded. 

At first, the Doctor didn’t answer as he shifted parchments around on his desk, before lifting his eyes and meeting Ianto’s angry gaze. “You invited a vampire into this castle and endangered the students, Ianto,” he finally responded, refusing to look away from the other man. 

Ianto scoffed and rolled his eyes. “J is a fully grown wizard who is more than capable of controlling himself,” he stated. “There was never a danger to anyone or anything other than your pride.”

“You are a teacher here,” the Doctor pointed out, leaning back in his chair. “Calling Jack here was extremely irresponsible of you, and I’m not sure I can have someone teaching here who doesn’t think about the safety of our students.”

“Excuse me?” Ianto said, not entirely sure if he had heard the other man correctly.

The Doctor sighed heavily and ran his fingers along the arms of the chair, before he spoke again, “When you called Jack here, you endangered the rest of the staff and it’s students. If I hadn’t intercepted his arrival, he would have been free to roam about the building with the vampire in full control. I will allow you to remain until the end of the school year, but you will not be required to return in September with the rest of the staff.” A sharp breath escaped Ianto’s lips, but the Doctor wasn’t finished, “I think you should remember that, until the end of the school, your loyalties lie with this school and the students.

At his final words, Ianto got to his feet, towering over the desk as he glared down at the Doctor. “First, headmaster,” he began, venom filling his voice, “I would rather quit than work with someone who refuses to see sense, but I care about my students too much to quit just before end of year exams. And second,” he continued, “I was – and still am – a Slytherin; I don’t take lightly to people telling me where my loyalties should lie.” He moved away from the desk and headed towards the door. He paused with his hand on the wood and glanced over his shoulder at the older wizard. “If you knew anything about your nephew, you would know that my loyalties have been with him for over twenty years.”

Without saying another word, he wrenched the door open and stormed from the room, allowing the door to slam closed behind him, leaving the Doctor staring after him in surprise.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3\. Sorry for firing Ianto. Just trust me that I have a plan.


	21. Up The Astronomy Tower

**Chapter 21: Up The Astronomy Tower**

Alice yawned widely and rubbed her hand over her eyes in an attempt to keep herself awake. She had been trying to sleep for almost four hours, but every time she managed to drift off, she found herself trapped in a nightmare where Jack was being given the Dementors kiss while the Doctor watched and laughed. Inside she knew – hoped – that her great-uncle wouldn’t really have let Azkaban’s guards destroy the wizard he had raised, but every time she tried to reassure herself, there was a little voice in the back of her head to remind her that Jack and the Doctor hated each other.

She had no idea why the two refused to get along. She couldn’t remember there being a time where they weren’t arguing with each other about something. For a long time she had thought it was her fault that they didn’t like each other; every argument she ever witnessed or overheard had something to do with her – it was hard to think otherwise. Remus had been the one who had told her that her father and the Doctor’s relationship had been rocky since Jack’s fifteenth birthday, and even he didn’t know what had happened between the pair of them. Trying to ask Jack had been out of the question; he refused to even mention the Doctor if he could help it.

“I’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to be up here when we’re not in Astronomy,” Draco’s voice commented from behind her, making her jump and let out a yelp of surprise.

She looked up and watched the blond and Owen sit in the small alcove behind her. “Was making me jump really the best idea?” she snapped, glaring at Draco as she indicated to the ground far below them. When she had given up trying to sleep, she had decided to go for a walk and her feet had taken her to the top of the Astronomy Tower. “How did you know where I was, anyway?” she asked. The boys and girls slept in separate rooms; there was no way they could have noticed her absence. 

“Nott’s snoring was keeping me up, so I decided to sleep on the couch,” Draco answered. “I woke up just before you left, but didn’t realise it was you at first. I’m surprised you didn’t see me.”

Owen nodded his head and added, “He woke me up and we figured that a tower was the second most likely place to find a vampire; after the dungeons, of course.” Alice glared at him and he shrugged his shoulders uncaringly. “We were right, weren’t we?”

Alice snorted and rolled her eyes, leaning her head against the window frame as she stared at the forest. She had told Owen the truth about what she really was when they had woken the morning after the events in the Shrieking Shack and, just like Draco, he hadn’t acted surprised at all. If anything, Owen seemed to have expected her to be a vampire; when questioned on how he had already suspected something was off about her, he had cited the same reasons Draco had – her eyes and her reaction to blood.

They hadn’t spoken about it since and to hear her friends talk about her being a vampire felt a little strange. Deep down, she half expected them to come after her with stakes, a crucifix and holy water. 

Draco leant forward, looking through the open window at the ground below them. “What would…” He swallowed nervously. “What would happen if you fell from here?” he asked softly, leaning back as far as he could without leaving the alcove completely.

“Why, are you planning on pushing me off?” Alice laughed with a small shake of her head. “I’d break my neck. What’d you think would happen, idiot?” Despite the harshness of her words, there was no venom in her voice; only amusement.

The blond’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “I know that,” he retorted. “But, providing your dad’s books are right, it wouldn’t… kill you, would it?”

“Not that I know of,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders. “But I don’t plan on putting the theory to the test any time soon, thank you very much.” She paused for a moment, before asking, “Do you remember when Remus was off sick and Hart covered his lesson?” Her friends nodded. “The stuff he was teaching us about vampires was right. The killing curse will only work on a vampire if they haven’t fed for a long time, or are already weak from blood loss. The easiest and quickest way to kill one of us, is to brew a Rowan potion.” 

“A full vampire can live for thousands of years if they’re careful and no one slips them a potion. No-one really knows how long half vampire’s really live, but we still think that Dad’s going to be around for a while.” She paused, taking a breath before adding, “Even my lifespan is going to be longer than the average witch and I’m only a quarter vampire.”

They were silent, until Owen whispered, “How old are you?”

Without missing a beat, Alice answered, “394.” 

Owen’s head snapped up from where he had been staring at a knot in the wood of the floorboard. “Really?” he whispered in shock, staring at Draco who was looking at Alice in surprise as well.

Alice scoffed and rolled her eyes. “You’re both so gullible,” she muttered. “I’m 14 on July thirty-first,” she stated slowly as though she were talking to small children. “And my dad is 34 in November, in case you want to know,” she added with a smirk, making Draco stick his tongue out at her.

They fell into a comfortable silence, each of them looking out over the school grounds and too lost in their own thoughts into speak. Slowly the sun began to rise over the horizon, casting a warm orange glow over the school grounds.

“We should get back to the common room,” Alice eventually whispered, not wanting to speak too loud and ruin the moment. “The last thing I want right now is to bump into Hart,” she added, carefully getting to her feet and pulling the window closed.

To her surprise, Draco nodded his head in agreement and reached up, grabbing her hand to pull himself to his feet despite her attempts to push him over. It seemed that his opinion of his godfather had been tainted somewhat after the potions master had handed Jack and Sirius over to the Doctor.

Alice waited until Owen was standing before she slipped one arm through his and the other through Draco’s, before they began making their way back to the Slytherin common room.

Due to the early hour, none of them were being particularly careful about not being caught; it was well known throughout the school that, after midnight, the only member of staff who was generally awake was Filch (Alice wasn’t sure if the caretaker actually slept, but that was a different story for a different day).

They had almost reached the staircase that would take them to the common room when they heard a familiar, Welsh-accented voice say, “It’s a bit too early for breakfast, isn’t it?” Slowly they each turned around, wearing identical looks of guilt on their faces and Ianto laughed, shaking his head with an affectionate smile on his face. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you off,” he assured them, snickering as relief washed over the three of them.

“What are you doing up so early?” Alice questioned softly.

Ianto reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder and squeezing softly. “You’re not the only ones who couldn’t sleep last night,” he whispered and Alice frowned deeply. There was something in his voice that she couldn’t quite place, and Alice didn’t like it at all. Before she could press him any further, Ianto continued, “Could you come see me after the feast?” he requested of Alice. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

Slowly, Alice nodded her head. She watched silently as Ianto said goodbye, before turning on his heel and heading in the direction of his office. 

“What do you think he wants?” Draco asked as soon as the Charms professor was out of sight.

“I don’t know,” Alice whispered, not taking her eyes from the corner Ianto had disappeared around. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t sound good.”

TBC


	22. Employment Terminated

**Chapter 22: Employment Terminated**

The final feast of the school year went far too slow for Alice’s liking. Ravenclaw had won the house cup, with Slytherin only missing out by fifty points, but Alice couldn’t bring herself to care. She had been turning Ianto’s words over in her head all day, and still hadn’t managed to work out what the wizard would want to talk to her about. Her first thought had been that there was something wrong with Jack, but Alice had dismissed that thought pretty much immediately; she was sure if it was something that serious, Ianto would have told her immediately and not dragged her torment out across the whole day.

As soon as the Doctor had dismissed them all, with words that she hadn’t listened to, Alice jumped up and ran from the room, heading straight for the Charms professor’s office; Owen’s shouts that Ianto hadn’t even finished his pudding had fallen on deaf ears.

Ianto’s footsteps signalled his arrival five minutes after Alice had deposited herself on the floor outside his door to wait for him. “You didn’t have to rush off like that,” he said softly, holding a hand out to help her up, before unlocking the door.

Alice shrugged her shoulders and stepped into the room when indicated by the older man. She knew enough about wizards to know that it was dangerous to enter their offices without being invited. Even though who weren’t experts at charms generally knew enough to protect their dwellings from unwanted visitors. Alice knew that someone who knew as much as Ianto, had more than enough power to cause serious damage to trespassers.

A gasp filled the air and it took Alice a moment too long to realise that the sound had come from her. The last time she had visited Ianto’s office, it had been completely organised and there had been nothing out of space. Now there were trunks piled in one corner of the room, books were piled high on every surface other than the bookcase where they belonged, and a pile of robes had taken up residence on one end of the couch.

“What’s going on?” she demanded, turning on her heel and staring up at Ianto.

Ianto surveyed the chaos that was his office with a sad look, before turning back to his boyfriend’s daughter. “It’s the end of the school year; my contract of employment had officially been terminated as of tomorrow morning.”

“What?” Alice shouted, making Ianto wince. “Why?” she added with a shriek.

The wizard threw her a look that she seen directed at Jack plenty of times when he did or said something that Ianto thought was stupid. “I think you know the answer to that, Alice,” he murmured, shrugging out of his cloak and hanging it on a hook behind the door.

Alice didn’t respond as she sat down heavily on the couch. Ianto was right, deep down she did know why he would soon be out of a job. While she didn’t know what had happened between the Doctor and Ianto in the older wizard’s office, she knew the headmaster wouldn’t like that a member of his staff was in a relationship with Jack.

“Can he really sack you for going out with my dad?” she whispered, looking up at the man she had been feeling a lot closer to since that night in the Shrieking Shack.

Ianto heaved a sigh and leant back against his desk. “Not technically,” he admitted, looking down at his hands, before lifting his gaze to meet hers. She could tell that he didn’t want to admit the truth to her, but knew that he would all the same. “He’s using the excuse that I knowingly endangered the students by bringing Jack to the castle.”

“What?” the female Slytherin hissed, her eyes narrowing in hatred at his words. “He can’t do that!” she exclaimed.

“Unfortunately, he can,” the Welshman corrected, moving across the room and sitting on the edge of the couch in the only free space he could find beside Alice. “It’s not the end of the world,” he added, wrapping his arm around her as he tried to comfort the distraught looking student.

Alice swallowed thickly and tried desperately to think of what they could do to save Ianto’s job. Each theory seemed as implausible as the next, and she quickly found herself despairing. “Does my dad know?” she asked, leaning her head against his shoulder and closing her eyes.

Another sigh escaped Ianto and he answered, “That’s the real reason why I was up so early this morning. I apparated to your house last night to tell him,” he added, wincing at the memory of Jack’s reaction to the news. “He… He didn’t take it as well as you are,” he admitted, chuckling wryly and shaking his head.

That, Alice didn’t find difficult to believe; Jack wasn’t exactly known for being a calm man, especially not when the Doctor did something Jack didn’t approve of. “I can’t believe you’re not going to be here next year,” she whispered. “You and Remus are the best teachers here; you can’t both leave!” She had already known that Remus wouldn’t be at the school the following year; the werewolf had confided in her that his contract was only for a year.

Ianto grinned at her compliment and placed his hand over hers, squeezing affectionately. “It’ll be okay,” he tried to reassure her, even though he didn’t fully believe his own words. He had been teaching at Hogwarts for almost seven years, and didn’t know if he was cut out to do any other job. But that was a problem he could afford to deal with at a later date. Thankfully, he had built up a rather healthy savings fund he could survive off of until he had fully worked things out.

“You’re going to stay with us this summer, right?” Alice asked, cutting through Ianto’s thoughts about his finances. “Now that you’re not going to be working here anymore.”

The wizard chuckled at her words and got to his feet. “I only live at the castle through the school year, Alice,” he pointed out, picking up a small pile of books and depositing them in a nearby trunk. “I’m not going to be homeless after tomorrow; I have a flat in Cardiff.” 

He didn’t want to admit it to himself or Alice, but he was trying to avoid looking at his boyfriend’s daughter. He had wanted to bring up the subject of moving in with Jack since the summer, but when Alice had been acting like Ianto was the devil himself, he had talked himself out of it and resigned himself to the knowledge that it was never going to happen. Now that she had mentioned the subject, he was almost scared to allow himself to consider the possibility.

Alice jumped to her feet and grabbed his hands when he tried to reach for another book. “You’re staying with us this summer,” she repeated, removing the question this time. “I know you want to and I know that dad would love for you to be there all the time.” She paused and Ianto found himself holding his breath as he waited for the sentence he hoped she would say. “And I’d like that as well.”

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone for reading, reviewing and your kudos'. It's taken me two years to finally finish this story and I''m happy to say that I'm proud of how it turned out.
> 
> I plan on starting the Goblet of Fire very soon while the ideas are still fresh in my head, but I won't start posting until the story is completely finished; so keep your eyes peeled for future updates. (Next up is actually an Avengers fanfic).
> 
> Much love
> 
> Caz M x


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